One child at a time

We often fathom miracles as instant, mystical events that meet a need or fulfills a wish.

The Mary Mission didn’t quite happen that way for Bismarck residents Jon and Pam Kossan. Yet, they say in building and funding a new school in the jungles of Uganda in less than two years, the word miracle is the nearest definition that fits.

The events that led to the establishment of St. Philomena’s Primary School clicked together so rapidly that the Kossans cannot explain it. The building contractor and retired nurse are not wealthy. “It’s the Holy Spirit. It’s the only way I can explain it,” Pam said. She never pictured herself traveling to Uganda.

The school will open its fourth year in February 2019 with an expected 400 students. Additions to the four-building facility are underway as donations pour in from across the nation and international borders.

The Kossans participated in the most recent mission to Uganda this past July. They are seeking volunteers, donations, black tennis shoes and more to supply students for the next mission planned for mid-November 2019. Students are among 800 orphans estimated to inhabit the five-village area. Each volunteer that accompanies them on a mission is allowed to carry four 50-pound duffel bags to hold supplies and a small number of personal items on the flight.

How it all began
 
Through a Medjugorje newsletter, Pam learned of a pilgrimage to Uganda and Rwanda in November 2014 and joined. Medjugorje is one the most recent locations where the Virgin Mary has been reported to have been sighted in the Bosnia-Herzegovina region. Pam has visited the town because of a deep love for the Blessed Virgin that her family had instilled.

Stephen, Pam’s guide in Uganda, opened her eyes to the needs of children orphaned and/or suffering from the effects of AIDS, malaria, malnutrition, severe poverty, witchcraft and polygamy.

The non-profit created by the Kossans called the Mary Mission partners with Stephen’s Green Village Children Center to provide preschool through middle school children a chance at an education and future. Young girls attending avoid being sold to older men, and young boys at the school won’t be bartered off for dangerous safaris that make them vulnerable to predators.

The origins of Mary Mission were seeded with Pam’s promise to build a woman a home in Uganda. Stephen introduced Pam to Maurice, 66, a widow who was caring for 11 orphans, ages 3 to 13.

Maurice and the children stayed in a two-room, mud plaster shelter covered with old rusting metal for a roof. The roof and walls had holes. The floor was dirt. Pam said most barns here would have provided better shelter.

Pam described Maurice’s eyes as despondent, a black hole, without hope.

Pam spotted some of the children engaged in what she mistook as typical American play.

“I said ‘oh, they are making mud pies.’”

Stephen corrected her, “No Pam, they are going to dry the (mud) cookies on the rock because when they get hunger pangs tonight, they will have something to eat.”

As a mother and grandmother, Pam says she was distressed by their dire conditions and she resolved to help. She prayed harder than she can remember.

Upon her return to America, Pam was astounded to find a job offer to be a traveling nurse. Her salary would allow her to pay for Maurice’s home in just weeks. The grandmother of eight accepted despite an already full plate. The mission recently completed its third home for a family in need, according to Pam.

Jon lent his support for the cause by making oak crosses at his own expense and selling them via Facebook. Thousands sold all over the country.

 Many miracles

“There were so many miracles,” she said.

In June of 2015, Pam returned to Uganda to help oversee the building of the four-room house for Maurice and the orphans. “We collected enough money to put bunk beds in the home for every child and Maurice, to tap water onto her property and a two-seater outhouse,”

On that visit, Pam then spotted an odd formation of bricks in the distance. It was to be the toilets for the future school, Stephen said. He simply did not have the $6,800 to complete it.

Without the outhouse toilets, the Uganda law forbade Stephen from building a school. Pam promised Stephen the 20-unit toilet would be completed that fall. She describes the laws for schools in the country as very restrictive, and not helpful to the education process.

Jon was still on board, and made more crosses. In three weeks, the Kossans raised the money for the bathrooms.

Jon also relented and agreed to accompany Pam on future trips to Uganda. “I just feel I need to participate 100 percent because of my love for Pam and I believe in what she is doing,” Jon said. “They are grateful. I thought it was necessary I dive in head first.” 

In Uganda, he found young children enamored with him, following him around looking for positive adult figures. When he visits the school, they are proud to welcome the visitor.
 
Building St. Philomena School

Their vision wasn’t over. Jon and Pam wanted to build the school.

A Medjugorje newsletter circulated Pam’s story. Jon’s crosses kept selling. “We got offers and donations from all over the country,” said Jon.

Funds ranged from small increments to thousands of dollars. The newsletter also asked people to sponsor students through the Green Village Children’s Center Program. Pam giggles about one unlikely sponsor who has proven generous to Mary Mission. The retired Baptist attorney came in professing “I don’t like Catholics,” she recalls, but he donated 500 notebooks and now sponsors children in the school,

Three classrooms were built in September 2015 and in February of 2016, St. Philomena Primary School opened to 125 students.

“Things were just happening,” Pam said. “I told Jon ‘this is bigger than you and I.’ ”

Attorneys advised them that obtaining nonprofit status for all the donations could take five years, but the IRS approved them 17 days after they submitted their application in January 2017. Mary Mission was officially formed.

In February 2017, St. Philomena’s school opened for its second school year and educated 277 students. In its 2018 school year, 350 are enrolled.

Since her second visit to Uganda, Pam has put her nursing skills to good use organizing clinics for de-worming children, providing prenatal classes, health classes, first aid, immunizations, mouth care clinics and teaching young girls sanitary hygiene so they may continue to attend school. 

Ugandan culture ostracizes menstruating girls as unclean and they are not allowed to attend school during their monthly cycle, said Pam. Through the Mary Pad program, donated T-shirts are used to sew sanitary napkin kits for the girls and the girls are properly trained how to clean them. The young girls are also provided sports bras. 

Children are tested for placement into the school. Enrollment will grow as the $25 per month sponsorships allow them to hire more teachers

Sponsored children at the school are provided two basic meals per day, an education and a safer future for six days a week for nearly 10 months of the year. “They get two meals a day. For most of the kids, that is all they get,” said Pam. “Saturday, they get a meal and that is most likely the last meal they get until Monday.”

Economic opportunities are nonexistent in the Masaka District of Uganda, according to Pam. Average income is about $2 per week and the people rely on bartering to get by.

Thirty people are employed at the school and that helps end the cycle, she said. Workers are provided simple meals and pay. Its teachers have a room to sleep.

Parents and guardians of students at St. Philomena’s Primary School are required to participate in regular school meetings with teachers and pay part of the child’s education with small amounts of food or toilet paper.

Mary Mission and the school doesn’t solve everything, acknowledge the Kassons, but a lifetime of illiteracy would make it near impossible to find work outside the villages.

“They have a chance,” said Pam. “We give the tools they need for a better life.”

Send donations to Mary Mission, 3270 Bethany Loop, Bismarck, N.D. 58503 or contact them at 701-530-9310 or kossanjj@bis.midco.net. You can also visit www.marymission.com for more information.

Visit www.greenvillagechildrencenter.org, to sponsor a child for the school. Cost is $25 per month per child.