Fr. Billy Sheridan, SMA
Diocese of Kontagora, Nigeria
Nigeria
Fr Billy Sheridan, Society of African Missions, works as a supervisor and trainer at the Justice, Peace and Development Department in the Diocese of Kontagora in the north-west of Nigeria.
‘Missionaries of the Society of African Missions have worked in the area of Borgu for over fifty years ministering mostly to the Kamberi tribal people. For much of that time the ministry was one of silent witness as the local people distrusted the outsider and scorned any type of innovation.
Borgu itself is situated in the north west of Nigeria bordering the Republic of Benin. Today it remains one of the most isolated and underdeveloped regions of Nigeria. The Kamberi people are semi-nomadic and small subsistence farmers.
The Borgu area became an independent ecclesiastical jurisdiction, under the leadership of Bishop Tim Carroll SMA, in 1995, since that time the SMA has poured considerable resources and manpower into doing something towards alleviating the poverty of the local people.
What began as a small scale adult literacy programme in 1997 germinated into a large scale ‘dry season literacy course’ with up to 15,000 adults, many of them women, taken part over the past couple of years. These courses are aimed at giving adults in the region an ability to read and write their own Kamberi language and also Hausa, the ‘lingua franca’ of the general area.
From these Literacy courses developed primary health programmes and a very concerted programme in well digging. Fr Billy Sheridan spearheaded the ‘Water and Sanitation’ programme in the area.
For the past eight years I have overseen the construction more than five hundred wells in different villages in the Vicariate, (around fifty-five per year).
For a village community, (usually numbering about 300 – 500 people), to qualify for a well they must fulfill a number of obligations:
· All the women of the village must attend a workshop centered on well maintenance and general hygiene. (In 2008 some 4500 women participated in these workshops) ;
· A faction of costs of construction must be tendered to enable the work begin; and
· Well-digging teams must be fed and accommodated during the duration of the construction.
In 2008 more than 230 men were trained in well construction. This involved a time spent at school learning basic well digging techniques and issues around health and safety. Upon completion of this part of the course the trainee is assigned to a supervisor where they will spend twelve months learning their trade. They are then provided with a certificate attesting to their competence in well digging. A good number go on from this training and set up their own businesses digging wells in private compounds etc.
In 2008, the Daughters of Charity have come to work with us and now plan to take over responsibility for the Primary Health Programmes in the area. In 2007 the sisters of Our Lady of Apostles took over the management of a primary boarding school constructed in the last few years for children of these nomadic people. These children come on Monday morning for school and return to their families upon completion of class each Friday.