Where We Work
The vision of Krizevac is to achieve lasting, positive and enterprising change in some of the most disadvantaged areas in Africa. Chilomoni, Malawi is where we have worked the most extensively, in building the Beehive Centre for Social Enterprise. We have, however, also worked closely with local communities in Maiduuri, Nigeria and Kigali, Rwanda and have plans to begin working in Kitui, Kenya as well. As with Chilomoni, our work in these areas has begun with the building of the ‘Way of the Cross,’ to create places for prayer and solace for the local community. Since the completion of these, we have been working with the local communities to understand how we can further support them, building on the extensive knowledge we have built up through our partnership with the Chilomoni community.
Chilomoni sits on the outskirts of Blantyre, Malawi’s second largest city in the south of the country. People move to the area for cheap housing, in the hope of finding work in the city. There are, however, limited job opportunities and high unemployment rates across the region. People find themselves living in the crowded, peri-urban area, with no access to land to grow food and no financial support (there is no welfare state in Malawi). Blantyre has a working population of around 340,000 with 42.7% of the potential labour force out of employment. (Office for National Statistics). Those that do have work are typically employed informally through the grey market, which is unregulated and unreliable. 70% of people in Chilomoni live on less than $2 per day. This issue is exacerbated by poor access to education, which prevents people from moving out of poverty. Only 58% of children complete primary school and a mere 8% complete secondary education. Education rates for girls are consistently lower than boys, as they are often unable to complete their education due to the demands and pressures of family survival. Beehive and Krizevac take a holistic approach to transforming the local community through providing opportunities for employment and education, whilst supporting the most vulnerable in society.
Maiduguri is the largest city in the Borno State in North-West Nigeria. It sits at the heart of the Boko Haram insurgency, and the city has faced mulitple attacks by the group. More than anything, this place needs peace. The Most Rev Dr Oliver Doeme, Bishop of Maiduguri had seen the powerful effect of prayer in bringing peace. He set up rosary groups in areas subjected to terrorist atrocities and in 2017, he asked the trustees of Krizevac Project to fund a Krizevac cross on a mountain outside Maiduguri as a visible symbol of hope and prayer and peace within the hostile environment. The local community asked for support in enhancing local agriculture to support livelihoods and enable them to cater for themselves. Kitchen garden projects have supported needy farmers to diversify their crops and the plans are to extend this agricultural work to create hundreds of meaningful jobs to help bring peace to the area.
The genocide of 1994 left a nation in need of healing. In 2012 a Krizevac cross was erected just outside the capital of Kigali. A local artist was commissioned to produce stations for The Way of the Cross inspired by images produced by Carmelo Puzolo in Medugorje. Whereas many stations of the cross have 14, just like the Krizevac in Medjugorje, these have a 15th station for the resurrection. Many people in Kigali have found hope and healing from the promise of Christ’s resurrection and the stations of the Cross have been a source of comfort to many.
