Ranau parish receives RM210k from Rome for kindergarten

RANAU – St Peter Claver Church (SPCR) here received a donation of RM210,000 from the Vatican Foundation to build a kindergarten (Tadika Kasih Bonda), currently located in the old church building (Fr Salm Hall).

Father Nicholas Stephen shared the good news during the Ranau Parish Day event officiated by Archbishop John Wong on 10 Sept 2017.

The Kasih Bonda Kindergarten, which uses English as its introductory language, started operating in 2015. It now requires its own building as a result of the very encouraging response from Christian students in this area.

To accommodate the construction of the building, the church needs an allocation of RM750.000, besides the donation from the Vatican Foundation through the courtesy of the Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu. The contribution of all the people is needed to realise the completion of the building.

Meanwhile, Abp Wong also announced the construction of the Catholic Centre to be built near  Sacred Heart Cathedral building Kota Kinabalu that requires an allocation of RM9.6 million.

To complete this centre, the archdiocese is seeking the generous contribution of all Catholics from the 22 parishes and sub-parishes in the archdiocese.

If every single person contributes just RM10.00, then the allocation of RM150,000 donated by the Ranau parish for the construction of the Catholic centre will be easy, the prelate said.

For that purpose, the archbishop launched the special Donation Fund from Catholics in the district. He personally led the donation into the fund followed by Father Stephen, Father Francis Tsen, Father Bruno Yasun and local church leaders.

During the ceremony, he also held a groundbreaking to officiate the construction of the kindergarten building at the back of the church.

Among the events at the Parish Day were the celebration of the sacrament of Confirmation for 265 candidates, exhibitions from 21 church committees, lunch with Archbishop, lucky draws,  and cake cutting. – herald malaysia.com