Holy Family Parish in Katima Mulilo, Namibia

History of Our Mission
The first permit for a missionary society to enter Caprive region had been issued in the Capital Windhoek in October 1934 to the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA). It had been issued for missionary and educational purposes in accordance with the government notice. The center would be established at Katima Mulilo. The commissioner for native affairs in Caprivi, Major L.W.F. Trollop, was very dissatisfied with the performance of the SDA especially in the field of social development of the local population; in his opinion, they were not socially motivated and consequently had failed to open schools and hospitals. This was against the principles of Major Trollop. The SDA mission was established at the place of the present Catholic Mission.
Major Trollop had regular contacts with the officials in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and had become aware of the excellent work done by the Irish capuchins there. The Catholic Mission operated quite a number of schools and hospitals. Major Trollop, who was very concerned for the welfare of the people of Caprivi wanted the Catholics to take this mission.
Mgr. K. Flynn, apostolic prefect of Livingston, received the application from Major Trollop. He first made an exploratory tour to acquaint himself with the situation. It took place on the 8th of November 1943. In January 1944, Fr. Agathangelus crossed the river and chose a site at Lisikili; but the site was changed on account of the danger of flooding. At Major Trollop's suggestion the Catholic Mission would take over the mission site from the SDA. In the meantime permission had been sought and granted for the SDA to retain their house at the aforementioned site at the end of August. No written information could be found on the reaction of the SDA mission.
On the 31st January 2003, three fathers from the Capuchin province of St. Joseph Kerala arrived in Namibia to take over the above mentioned Katima Mulilo mission run by Irish Capuchins since 1943. In this region of Caprivi we speak the language Silozi. This is a quite large parish with 52 outstation churches. Sisters of the Sacred Name of Jesus from Poland are working in our Parish. They are teaching in the schools and running Cheshire Home for the aged. The furthest church is 160kms away from the our mission. To reach the Bishop's residence we have to travel 520kms.
Location: Holy family Mission is one of the Missions of St. Joseph Province-Kerala. We took over this Mission on May 25, 2003 from the Capuchin Vice province of Zambia. Katima Mulilo is one of the largest parishes in the Rundu Vicariate, which was established recently as the third diocese of Namibia.
Personnel: At present there are 2 friars from the Province working in this Mission. We have a convent of Polish sisters who have been working in the parish since 1986 as well as local sisters in formation.
Situation: Our area of ministry is Eastern Caprivi Region, which is in the North Eastern part of Namibia and is bordering Angola, Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Our parish is of the size of Switzerland. We have over fifty communities and three churches in the main township which is about five kilometers from the Katima Mission.
Difficulties encountered: Almost half of our Catholic Christian population is situated on the flood prone area of the Zambezi River, which flows on the border of Namibia and Zambia. There are no roads in this area and our communities are cut off for almost eight months because of floods. During the summer we have to face difficult situations such as sandy and badly maintained roads. There is only one tarred road in the whole area