Larteh Kubeasi, Ghana; Freetown, Sierra Leone, November 12, 2018
Photo: patriarchateofalexandria.com On an extended pastoral visit to several countries of Western Africa, His Beatitude Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa has been warmly welcomed by his extensive flock and is taking the opportunity to make concrete offerings to his people who are often greatly suffering.
On Saturday, November 3, Pat. Theodoros visited the St. Peter’s Technical College in Larteh Kubeasi, Ghana, where he inaugurated a computer lab equipped with 30 computers purchased with His Beatitude’s support, as the Patriarchate’s website reports.
St. Peter’s is a private school funded by the Orthodox Church in Ghana in order to support education among young people. On the occasion, His Beatitude urged the school leadership to use the computers for the “education of students and for the glorification of God.”
Photo: patriarchateofalexandria.com Ambrose Asare, the schools’ Deputy Director noted that it is necessary for the students to acquire skills in the field of computer science and thanked the Patriarch for equipping the school with so many new computers.
On Thursday, November 8, His Beatitude arrived in Sierra Leone for the first time in 6 years to inaugurate the Orthodox Church’s new schools there.
Photo: patriarchateofalexandria.com After attending services for St. Nektarios of Aegina the next day, Pat. Theodoros then visited the St. Moses of Ethiopia Missionary Center in the Waterloo area of the capital city of Freetown, where he celebrated the consecration for the inauguration of the first Orthodox Children’s Village for orphaned children who have lost their parents and guardians due to the deadly Ebola virus.
Photo: patriarchateofalexandria.com “The Orthodox Children’s Village is a model village for the Orthodox Church and there the orphaned children will find maternal love and affection from surrogate mothers, shelter, refuge, food, medical care and education,” the Patriarchate’s site reports.
Photo: patriarchateofalexandria.com The African Patriarch also blessed the 24 children who will live in the village and who greeted him with cheers and applause.
Photo: patriarchateofalexandria.com Then, on Saturday, Pat. Theodoros laid the foundation stone for the building of an Orthodox primary school “in the most impoverished neighborhood of the planet in the slum areas of Crew Bay in the heart of the capital of Sierra Leone,” where 27,000 people, including 7,000 children live. Many of the children there die before the age of 5.
Photo: patriarchateofalexandria.com Until now, these children only had access to a rudimentary school with two classes and no sanitary facilities. The foundation stone for the new school was laid by His Beatitude I the presence of the Mayor of the city, the Municipal Council, and members of the slum communities.
One representative of the communities emotionally thanked Pat. Theodoros for his work, noting that he had grown up in the slums deprived of basic education, and that he would sleep peacefully and joyfully for the first time. For her part, Mayor Yvonne Aki Sawyer offered the Patriarch the key to the city as a sign of gratitude for his love for Freetown and especially for its children.
His Beatitude responded that the Patriarchate will always be present in efforts to improve the life of the residents of not only the capital but of the entire country.
Follow us on Facebook!
