World Food Program, Passion for the Needy Organization Boosts Bishop Hiiboro’s Opening Feeder Roads Initiative

According to Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro, the support from World Food Program came through Mr. Ruso Gabriel who is in charge of WFP head office Western Equatoria who felt touched by the initiative of the local people to take matters of development into their own hands and get things moving.

“The areas where the feeder roads are being opened has a population of approximately 700,000 people and the opening of those roads will come with a lot of benefits to these people; for instance, it will be easier to access essential services by people who usually get cut off from accessing such services during the rainy seasons,” Bishop Hiiboro explained.

The Bishop who decide to dedicate the year 2021 to work in order to bring development to his diocese using the theme, Bible in one hand and a Hoe in the Other had encouraged all people living in the affected including Priests, catechists, members of Christian communities, chiefs, traditional leaders, young people and all community leaders to voluntarily join hands in the work of opening their roads.

The response to Bishop Hiiboro’s call has so far been positive as members of the community took themselves the liberty to work using their own simple tools to start opening up the reads. This initiative by the local communities is what got the attention of WFP as well as Passion for the Needy organization to support the local people and ensure that the work continues.

WFP therefore in its effort to support the initiative donated food items to the community members as well as tools for digging up the roads.

Mr. Ruso Gabriel the in-charge of WFP head office in Yambio expressed that he was totally moved by the love and commitment demonstrated by the community members who heed the call of Bishop Hiiboro to open up the feeder roads.

Meanwhile, the director-general of Passion for the Needy organization Mr. Gabriel Matthew Gera who was also moved by the initiative of the local people to engage in the noble activity of bringing development to their own locality through the opening of feeder roads expressed that the initiative by the local is highly commendable.

“I am so happy to see that the areas where my people live in absolute poverty are being opened by the people themselves. This kind of initiative, this type of gesture is at my heart because this is where my passion which is for the needy fits so well. I, therefore, want to assure Bishop Hiiboro of our commitment to work together with him and the people to ensure that the initiative is successful,” Mr. Gabriel said.

Passion for the Needy Organization donated about three million South Sudanese Pound to ensure that the work continues. This was in addition to supporting the survey work where Mr. Gabriel brought in an engineer who assessed the bridges for construction work to be done on them.

“The work is still ongoing and we have to finish it and also organize to see to it that we shall be able to maintain the roads throughout the rainy seasons. We are still in need of more tools that will be kept by the leaders of the communities in the area as well as more resources to be able to fix the bridges along those roads,” Bishop Hiiboro explained adding that the diocese is calling upon well-wisher to join in and support the initiative.

He immensely thanked WFP and Mr. Ruso Gabriel as well as Passion for the Needy Organization and in particular the director Mr. Gabriel Matthew Gera for supporting the initiative. He encouraged them to continue standing with the diocese and the communities to see to the completion of the project.