To residents of Watamu and its environs in Kilifi County, Father Mario Cassar seem to be God sent as he is slowly transforming the lives of many through his philanthropic ways that see him pay school fees for several students, buy floor for porridge to feed public primary school students, help single mothers and vulnerable people in general.
At Watamu Primary School, head teacher Muheshimwa Tinga Kalu attributes the increase in school attendance by 80 per cent to the school feeding programme supported by the Malta international who settled in the tourists’ town in 2015 as a missionary after lecturing philosophy and theology for 33 years in Malta.
“I have been in this school from January this year and when I arrived here, there were a lot of challenges including lack of perimeter fence, classrooms, playing field and most important students’ attendance because of high poverty levels in Kilifi. But when Father Mario approached me, he asked me to give him a least of the needy children and I gave him a list of 67 needy children who even if we sent home the parents won’t come to school and if they came you will just sympathise with them. Father Mario started paying school fees for school uniforms and started buying maize flour daily to cook porridge and this really motivates the school children to come to school, because at home they don’t even have a single meal sometimes,” Kalu said.
He added: “Father Mario’s support has helped us a lot in the operations of the school because since the first term we have never received any money from the national government. Currently we have 629 students at Watamu Primary and we have a list of challenges for the school despite Father Mario’s efforts and I have been sharing our challenges with CDF, Lottery Club, the police and beach hotels around because we have only nine teachers in the school, our toilets don’t have a roof, some of the students engage in prostitution and illicit drugs, but the area OCPD has really helped us in the menace, the schools compound is also full of rocks that regularly injures students, which need to be graded, we need a library, a playing field and a better fence.”
One of the Mario school fees program beneficiaries Esther Saumu Kaplanga of Watamu Junior School said without Father Mario paying her school fees, she would have dropped out of school long time ago and probably been married as is the tradition in the area for children as young as 12 years old, due to dire poverty.
“I want to thank father Mario for paying my school fees because he has helped me very much in my education, since my parents are not well off. I want to be a lawyer when I grow up and I also want to build an orphanage so that I can help more needy children in Kilifi and Kenya at large,” Saumu said.
A parent, Fatma Ali who is the mother of Rahima Abass and Mohammed Abass said that the support from the Maltese clergy has really helped children in the region.
“I have suffered for a very long time with my two children and I would like to thank Father Mario a lot for her philanthropy because my children can now go get education and feed while in school. When they are happy in school they are also happy when they come back home. The support may look small to some people, but it’s massive to many parents including me,” said Fatma.
Father Mario said that from his strong education background, he dedicated his efforts to the field to give the less fortunate a stepping stone to success and he has more major plans for Watamu.
“ I have lectured in philosophy and theology at university level for 33 years. That’s why I am very personal with education because I know it’s the best gift I can ever give to anyone. I was ordained into the priesthood at 24 years and next year I will be celebrating 50 years into the priesthood. I came to Kenya in 2015 and in the first three months I was staying at the cathedral while embarking on a course to learn the Swahili language. I began my journey of helping in Marafa in Kilifi before I moved to Watamu,” said Mario.
He added: “ I have spent more than Sh 60 million since I came to Kenya and my dream and vision is to build a school and dig a borehole. And I have constructed a niche for the blessed mother at the cathedral. Apart from that some of my dreams are to build a health centre with specialization in physio-therapy in the whole of Malindi and Kilifi at large.”
