Mater
Farm
Mater Cyber World
Mater Pharmacy
|
MATER
FARM PROJECT
(Food
for the People) |
Mission
Statement:
To establish and position Mater Farm Project, Ahiara Diocese,
Mbaise, as a foremost viable and profitable company, providing
increased food, training and employment opportunities
to the teaming population of Mbaise people, ensuring that
the company's activities are carried out within the widely
accepted Catholic doctrine and morality, as well as, to
enhance the spiritual and social well being of the people
as good citizens of Nigeria and the world.
History:
Mater Farm Project took off officially on the 3rd April
2002 with only a poultry section and a stock of 2000 day-old
chicks (pullets) under the leadership of two Priest animators
and two workers. A year after, the stock rose to 3000
pullets and 300 broilers. Within the same year, other
sections like pig breeding and fishery were added. Today,
the poultry has in stock, 5000 laying birds and 500 growers.
Other sections have been added. These include turkey,
snail rearing and guinea fowls. A plantation of high-yield
banana species has been developed. With a well-developed
irrigation network, crops like maize, okra, and pepper,
are produced all year round. All together, there is in
place, an integrated agricultural system whose farming
methods are fast being absorbed by the diocesan population.
Impact:
The Project has made a mark in cheap food production
for the teaming population of Mbaise people. There is
steady supply of eggs, fish, snails, banana and maize,
all through the year. The lastest impact is in the area
of introduction of training programme for the local farmers.
These farmers have been organised into groups and taught
different aspects of modern agricultural practices to
enhance self-sustainance and employment. Click
here for pictures of some sessions.
Contact:
Rev. Fr. Rowland Ugo (Director)
Email: materfarm@yahoo.com
|
MATER
CYBER WORLD
Making
the world a global sitting room |
The
ongoing revolution in communication has been of great
interest to Church leaders around the world who are always
on a lookout for ways to help the Church become more relevant
to the time in which we live.
The bishop of Ahiara Diocese, Most Reverend Doctor Victor
Adibe Chikwe, has been one of the pioneer bishops in Nigeria,
and perhaps in Africa as a whole, in the employment of
the latest instruments of communication to enhance the
spread of the good news.
It is this passion of his that has manifested in the founding
of Mater Cyber World. Bishop Chikwe sees the Internet
as a means of communication with incredible potentials
for the good news. Therefore, as a man imbued with immense
foresight in the use of communcation gadgets, he could
not resist making it available to the Christian faithful
of his diocese.
In his travels across Europe and America since the early
90s, Bishop Chikwe has become increasingly aware and appreciative
of the benefits of a responsible use of the Internet in
expanding the range of choicese available in diverse spheres
of life, such as, broadening educational and cultural
horizons, breaking down divisions and promoting human
development in a multitude of ways. It is his personal
knowledge along this line that encouraged him to make
the Internet available to the rural people of his diocese.
Bishop Chikwe's vision is that through Mater Cyber World
the people of Mbaise would not be left behind in the ongoing
revolution in Cyber Space which he conceives as a Global
“SITTING
ROOM” for the proclamation of God’s kingdom.
He believes that with the extension of the Internet to
a rural setting like Mbaise one would record great strides
in the injunction of Jesus to preach the gospel "to
the ends of the earth".
MATER
CYBER WORLD is equipped with industrial-sized
equipment such as, a C-band V-sat with 2.4m dish, 128kbps
upload and 192kbps download. It has two sections - the
internet phone section with four-port telephony equipment
and a browsing section with 25 PCs working, with four
full-time workers at the services of customers.
Email: matercyberworld@yahoo.com
MATER
PHARMACY
In view of the peculiar problems of the people of the
diocese, Bishop Victor Chikwe, who shepherds about 492,545
people in a terribly deprived area of Imo State, Nigeria,
is intent on making sure that his people do not die cheaply
as a result of curable diseases. Especially since Government-owned
hospitals and good drinking water are not easily available
in the rural diocese of Ahiara, Mbaise, he has embarked
on providing his people with clean water from boreholes
as well as some quasi medical outfits such as pharmaceutical
stores with resident pharmacists, clinics, maternity homes,
medical centers, etc., to help alleviate the acute problems
of healthcare delivery in the diocese. In view of this
fact, Bishop Chikwe will always appreciate efforts in
cash or kind from people of goodwill to help him upgrade
and perhaps standardize the medical programmes of the
diocese.
Meanwhile, the diocese has its own pharmaceutical store
called Mater Pharmacy. It is hoping to
increase the number of such facilities in the diocese
in the coming years.
