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St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Parish

602 Everglade Drive
Madison, WI 53717
608 833-2600

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Mgolole Orphanage, Tanzania

Mgolole Orphanage in the Tanzanian town of Morogoro is home to over 60 children (about two-thirds girls) ranging in age from new-born to eleven years old. Several children have special needs. Most often infants are simply left at the doors of the orphanage. Twenty to thirty children die in an average year from malaria, typhoid, dysentery, and diarrhea from parasites. The orphanage is at capacity; when new children arrive, they must be turned away, unless another child has died and opened up a space. Adoption is rare. Worse yet, orphan girls not in an orphanage may be sold on the black market into slavery.

The orphanage is run by five nuns from the Catholic order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters of Africa (aka Mgolole Sisters) and 12 lay staff members (5 recently hired thanks to donations from members of St. Thomas Aquinas). The nuns' order is exclusively African, and although the sisters enjoy the support of the African Bishops for their mission, without European or American connections, they receive little financial support. The orphanage relies on donations. There is no state support of any kind: no placement service for the orphans, no medical service, no referal service, and no financial support. The nuns themselves have no administrative, technical, or professional training to help them, just their dedication and loving hearts. Because of financial and space limits, the sisters face regular moral dilemmas: which child will be admitted and which will not, which child will get to eat and which will not.

St. Thomas Aquinas Parish has become a "conductor" for the orphanage as part of the Rotary Club's Orphan Train project. Thanks to past donations from St. Thomas Aquinas Parish and from individual parishioners, the orphanage is now able to send all eligible children to school. Parish members have also contributed to irrigate and cultivate an additional two acres of land for food production and to build a playground for the children. Much more remains to be done: purchase beds for the children, put more land into cultivation, provide malaria medication, replace an old asbestos roof, provide a working vehicle for the orphanage.