The Benedictine mission of Uwemba in Tanzania is located at an altitude of 2000m in a mountainous landscape, beautiful but deeply scarred by the AIDS epidemic.

It is the region in Tanzania with the highest HIV prevalence, 14.8%, but reaches almost 16% among women.

The mission is well organized with farms, buildings, schools, a church, a bakery, and a dam that produces energy, including also a large health center.

Stories of great suffering and death caught the attention of the Benedictine nuns and monks. The painful cry of hundreds of sick, the cemetery that grows larger every day, made them reason and understand that they could wait no longer.

The idea of bringing DREAM to Uwemba came from Switzerland through a circle of friends starting from the Kusnacht Parish in Zurich, that know DREAM thanks to many trips to Africa and a long-term friendship with the Community of Sant’Egidio in Rome.

The proximity of the DREAM center in Iringa (a 4 hour car drive), the story of a few sick who were brought and were cured, and the friendship between the Benedictine Congregation and the Community are all further contributing to the on-going globalization of solidarity.

This month a DREAM mission and a group of friends from the Kusnacht Parish visited Uwemba and met the nuns and monks of the Mission.

The meeting has concretely allowed to program interventions, making operative decisions for the opening of a DREAM Center at the Health center shortly. A pleasant encounter with rich and lively testimonies of great friendship and great hope concluded the visit. The words, HOPE, JOY and GRATITUDE were often heard and have strengthened an alliance benevolently for the newly-found prospects and for life.

The long-term friendship made up of loyalty, sympathy, hope, and the awareness of the fact that Europe can still do a lot for Africa to change the life of many, next to DREAM’s matured experience over the years and the wish to overcome new challenges, all come together in a big mosaic, in the natural frame of the beautiful and beloved land of the mission of Uwemba.

Karibu DREAM. Asante DREAM