Catholic Church Good Shepherd Parish Kassala Sudan

Shimal Halanga Centre
The pastoral-centre of Shimal Halanga is about 3km north from the Good Shepherd Parish in
Kassala. Since 1992, many displaced people coming from South-Sudan have lived in the
settlement-area of Shimal Halanga. Fr. Ghebrai estimates the number of the now here living
families at 200-300, what corresponds to a number of 1200 to 1500 inhabitants. Through the
expansion of the city many families have been forced by the authorities to leave the
settlement-area. They change to Wau Nur or leave Kassala at all.
Some time ago there were many believers in Shimal Halanga , now the families due to the
swift growth of the city move away to Wau Nur. About 10 families still gather round the
centre of Shimal Halanga. They live near the pastoral-centre.
Formerly Moses the catechist lived inside the pastoral-building with his family. However the
roof of the meeting-centre collapsed because it was dilapidated. The house stands empty since
that time and is used only for the purpose of meeting of the faithful of this area and for
religious further education. It should be repaired soon, otherwise the showers of the rainy
season make the damages irreparable. In the centre no masses are celebrated. The faithful
move by taxi to Good Shepherd Parish to attend the service.
Erneo Mohammed lives with his family here.
He has 11 children and is the chairman of the
parish council since seven years.
Since 2002, more and more young men moved
into the environment of Shimal Halanga from
the regions around El Gedaref and Port Sudan in
order to work in the local brick-factory. Their
residential-area looks like a military hiding
place with trenches, and they called it Kandahar
after that city in Afghanistan where the Taliban
were expelled by the Americans at the time of
the foundation of this settlement.
While the previously mentioned families live around the centre, the factory workers live in 1
km distance to the pastoral-centre. The number of the here living workers is about 50. Each of
them has a wood-grass-cottage. However, that is only temporary since all of them would like
to build a better house. Partially these factory workers have already established families.
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The people have a very good community
among each other here. They meet in the
pastoral-centre to for religious instruction.
To the church services in the centre they
move by rent-cars - like the families, who
live around the centre.
Their aim is to reactivate the dilapidated
centre and then to organize a church
service there every Friday and Sunday.
Below a calculation of the costs of the