Project 3427 - Acquisition of a solar system
Benedictine Community of Wennappuwa (Sri-Lanka)
The Mater Unitatis congregation of Benedictine nuns was founded by Mother Maria Joanna Dora in Sardinia (Italy) on 29 October 1948. As the number of nuns grew, Mother Dora decided to establish the monastic life in various countries. At the invitation of the Bishop of Chilaw (Sri-Lanka), six Italian nuns founded a monastery in Wennappuwa in 1952. In 1957, the first Sri Lankan nun made her first profession. In 1972, the Wennapuwa community founded a second community in the same diocese, at Nainamadama (St William Monastery).
The community is made up of around twenty nuns.
The nuns make altar bread, vestments and liturgical linen. They have a vegetable garden and an orchard for the needs of the community, and a guest house to accommodate religious, priests and lay people.
Request
Due to the current economic situation in the country, the price of foodstuffs, and in particular imported products such as cloth, wheat flour and fuel, has risen sharply. As a result, all the oil-fired power stations have failed. Under these conditions, the entire country has to rely mainly on hydroelectric power stations, which are not sufficient to meet the country’s needs. The country therefore faces major difficulties, particularly during the dry seasons.
The community’s main sources of income are making altar bread and sewing clothes, both using electricity and electrical equipment. The entire life of the community is disrupted by long power cuts during working hours. What’s more, the local church also has to deal with the consequences, as the sisters are expected to produce altar bread for more than a quarter of Sri Lanka’s Catholic population. The best solution to this problem is therefore to install a solar energy system, which is perfectly suited to a country like Benin where sunlight is good all year round.
But the cost of the project is beyond the community’s capacity. Financial assistance would be needed to purchase and install the solar system.
Requested amount: 25,000 euros.
