In juni vatte Fr. Dr. Chobo van Ndala Hospital het plan op een tocht te maken langs 26 parochies van het Aartsbisdom Tabora met het doel voorlichting te geven over de Corona pandemie en alle maatregelen die verspreiding van het virus moeten voorkomen,. Het Kiswahili voorlichtingsmateriaal dat Fr. Chobo gebruikt is vooral gericht op kinderen en is een mooie creatie van de Dutch Tanzania Foundation. De fondsen die de tour van Fr. Chobo mogelijk maken zijn afkomstig van Stichting Tabora.

In Father Chobo’s eigen woorden:

‘My main idea for Tabora Catholic Archdiocese all parishes tour was to give awareness about COVID19 and the preventive measures to be taken against the pandemic especially for the church communities with their kids.  My worry and experience is that in the church there is danger of either being so sceptical or a little bit loose of how to protect oneself against the disease.  The church members especially the young ones are more vulnerable to the disease bearing in mind that they have misinformation from either way – the church leaders, priests included or the local and community leaders, parents included. 

So I wanted to first meet the clergy in all the parishes, for as a fellow priest on one hand and a medical personnel on the other, I stand a chance of giving authentic information about the disease in relation to church’s regulations and customs, such as social distancing, personal hygiene and the control of congregations while worshipping and prayer gathering in the church or in the houses

So far I have visited 6 parishes out of 26 and I’m planning to accomplish the tour before September.  We are grateful that the pandemic is not as deadly as we predicted.  However, going by figures from our neighbours in Kenya and Uganda, I think we still need to take precautions and continue disseminating correct information on how to prevent further local transmission of the disease.

So my special gratitude to Dutch Tanzania Foundation for creating this nice children’s booklet and also to the Tabora Foundation (Stichting Tabora) for providing me with funds to have it printed and to make the tour. Kids are really flocking to me asking for the booklet.’