ARGENTINIAN missionary priest Father Martín Prado has witnessed the suffering of the people in Papua New Guinea first hand.
“Papua New Guinea is a distant and mostly forgotten country. Only three provinces are connected by road, the rest are isolated,” Fr Prado said.
Fr Prado was only just ordained when he arrived in Papua New Guinea.
His diocese, Vanimo, is located in the remote northwest of the country.
“You can only get in and out of Vanimo by aeroplane,” he said.
“The only roads that do exist are for four wheel drive vehicles that can drive through jungles and cross rivers and mountains.
Whenever I travel, I take some young men with me to help me when it gets stuck.”
The new four wheel drive vehicle he uses was funded by ACN.
Papua New Guinea is covered by rainforest that remains well preserved.
Photo: Aid to the Church in Need.
The rainforest is a treasure for the people of Papua New Guinea, who care for and utilise it.
However, the lack of transitable routes makes it difficult to improve education, foster development and evangelise.
“I visit communities that can only be reached by foot, by boat, or by canoe,” Fr Prado said. Thanks to his new vehicle, he can reach many more people.
There is much still to do in the diocese of Vanimo.
“People suffer greatly in the jungle, they have nothing,” Fr Prado, who is a member of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, said.
“Children sleep on the ground, they help their mothers cook over open flames, bathe in the river, and walk barefoot.
“In my parish I am proclaiming the Gospel for the first time, baptising people, and telling them about Jesus Christ.”
With the“truck” as Fr Prado jokingly calls it, he has been able to provide the community with many other services as well.
The four wheel drive serves as an ambulance for women who have to go and give birth at the medical centre and as a hearse to transport the dead.
It also carries medicine for the sick, and construction materials for building two churches and houses for four catechists.
Fr Prado’s parish is located in the jungle, but he is also in charge of an educational project on the coast of Vanimo, where there are two primary schools and a secondary school that is just being set up and will cater for 1000 pupils.
Fr Prado spends seven days in the jungle and seven by the coast.
“Thank God I have a car … it helps me with my work, and with evangelisation. It really changed my life”, Fr Prado said.
ACN
