2008-06-28T10:20:00.002+12:00

Elders and Missionaries

The biggest problem with construction on South Pacific atolls is shipping the building supplies in. Fanning Is. has no regularly scheduled transportation at all. There are periodic suppliy ships from Tarawa, the capitol of Kiribati. There is als a private cargo ship from Hawaii that comes occasionally, sometimes as often as 6 trips a year. Christmas Island, 158 miles to the southeast, has weekly air passenger service with Hawaii and Fiji. But, NO regular service with Fanning Is.

The second construction problem is import duty on all incoming products. Currently there is a duty of 20% to 80% on almost all products, not essiential to living. Some donations from a curch to a church are exempt. The counsil on Fanning is trying to apply for duty free status for donated materials to religious organizations.

2008-06-28T10:12:00.001+12:00

Rotin Fatima Catholic Curch
Aramari Village
Fanning Island, Republic of Kiribati
South Pacific

Building Site

The village of Aramari is one of 5 villages on the atoll of Fanning. It is 5 miles south of the atoll entrance pass and the central village. The only road down the atoll is a graded coral path, which gets maintanence approximately once every 2 years. It is so rough that the 3 trucks on the south side of the pass take an hour to travel the 5 miles. Bicycle is the the primary transportatrion of the people. It also takes about 45 minutes to bicycle the same distance. only half of the members even have a bicycle. The 25 members of the Rotin Fatima church and their families can't travel to the other church for each of the functions because of this.

Some members of the church in front of the council building.

Their only meeting place is the village maneaba or council building. They very much want to build a real church but they have no funds.

For more information or about donating materials or funds contact:
Rotin Fatima Catholic Members
Aramari Village
Fanning Is.
Republic of Kiribati
South Pacific

An please understand that mail to Fanning may be very slow. It will have to wait for one of the official ships to make the passage, even as much as 4 months.

Rotin Fatima Catholic Church, Fanning Island