Visit to Isohe

Last Friday I finally had the chance to do something I had been wanting to do even while I was still visiting in June: visit the small mountain village of Isohe, where AVSI (an Italian NGO affiliated with the Church movement Communion and Liberation) has their base of activities in Sudan. I had met some of the AVSI staff during my earlier visit at a distribution of supplies to families displaced by intertribal fighting, and been in touch with them since I arrived here in September. We were finally able to coordinate transportation for an extended weekend visit.

The road into Isohe is brutal, we had several close calls and finally did get stuck in some deep mud. It took about an hour of digging, using the jack and placing stones before we were finally able to get the LandRover moving again. We arrived in the village at about 9:00 pm. It was only on awaking the next day, though, that I was able to take in the exceptional beauty of the place. It is almost surrounded by amazing mountains with large patches of exposed rock surface and some high peaks jutting out above the rest. Rain is abundant there, and so fields are verdant with cassava, sorghum, sweet potatoes and peanuts. The village water supply is piped in from a mountain water fall tucked into a crevice between peaks; I had the chance to hike out there on Sunday afternoon. There’s wildlife, too, including a variety of small deer, one of which has been domesticated and kept as a pet in the local convent of sisters.











The church of St. Theresa’s Parish, Isohe, was built by the Italian Comboni missionaries who served there in the first half of the last century. It was dedicated on Easter of 1949. It’s a large and impressive structure, especially given the location and the difficulty of getting materials there. There’s a very poignant crucifix in the sanctuary, and side altars in alcoves for Our Lady and St. Joseph; both have statues depicting each one holding the infant Jesus. It was a kind of a touching detail to have them both facing each other across the width of the church, each looking at the other holding the infant Jesus. A little ways behind the church is the parish cemetery, in which is buried – in a little shrine – Br. Alfonso Melotti, who died there in 1930 at the age of only 33. According to the story told in the village, he died by falling while building the church. The Comboni’s, like the Franciscans, worked in teams of priests and brothers, with the brothers exercising their skills in construction and mechanics at the service of the mission. They left an amazing legacy of faith.
















AVSI helps to sponsor both a primary school, St. Kizito’s (named for the youngest of the Ugandan martyrs, who was only about 14 or 15 when he died for his faith), as well as St. Theresa’s hospital. St. Kizito’s has both borders (from villages too far to walk on a daily basis) and day students. Although fairly recently built, it has already exceeded its capacity and has to use huts and tents as supplementary classrooms. The school’s motto is: “Hard Work Pays,” and the message painted on the main building says: “HOPE is a source of JOY, and JOY is a source of STRENGTH.”







St. Theresa’s Hospital is the only medical facility for miles around and provides crucial healthcare to the villages in its surrounding area. In addition to regular clinic and inpatient services, it offers maternity screening and birthing, a clinical laboratory, a pharmacy, a TB ward, and a surgical unit that is still incomplete due to lack of funds. The hospital is managed by two religious sisters of the Sacred Heart, a community founded in Southern Sudan by missionary Bishop Mazzoldi in the last century: Sr. Florence (shown in the doorway of the maternity ward), the administrator, and Sr. Helen (immediately following), who is director of nursing. According to Sr. Florence, the main medical conditions treated at St. Theresa’s are: malaria, pneumonia, intestinal parasites, gunshot wounds, and TB.