As funding sources for convents, seminaries and humanitarian agencies run dry, Catholic institutions in Africa are rethinking how they support their operations. Amid those challenges, some institutions find themselves making difficult choices between serving their communities as part of their apostolates and finding ways to raise funds from those same communities.
In the past, Catholic institutions in Zimbabwe and other African states could rely on support from retired missionaries who had returned to their home countries or fundraising efforts those retirees sponsored. Now the decline in missionary numbers has left African religious communities facing a financial crunch. These institutions have had to devise new initiatives to sustain themselves amid increasingly tough economic circumstances affecting many countries across Africa.
This has never happened before in Zimbabwe, where Catholic missionaries have had more than a century-long presence that shaped the country’s health, education and pastoral services.
“We need to find ways to support ourselves as most of our colleagues from overseas who helped source funds are no longer with us,” said Caroline Busvumani, a Precious Blood sister in Bulawayo. Sister Busvumani directs an infirmary and greenhouse at the Precious Blood provincialate—projects set up as part of new fundraising efforts.
“The infirmary will help us raise much needed funds. We would love to extend it, but funds are not permitting [expansion] at the moment,” she said. At many Catholic-run clinics and hospitals in Zimbabwe, the Precious Blood sisters charge patient fees that go towards paying staff and maintaining infrastructure.
The vegetables grown by the sisters in their greenhouse are also sold locally, with the money going toward the day-to-day running of the Precious Blood community.
“It is really tough now, and the economic situation has only made it worse,” Sister Busvumani said, referring to the country’s unrelenting economic hardships, including its high unemployment levels.
Other convents and religious congregations say they are also facing a funding crisis. Aid to the Church in Need reports acquiring a machine that makes hosts for Mass for the Poor Clare Sisters, a contemplative congregation in the capital city Harare, who plan to market the product.
Such ancillary fundraising efforts were rare in the past, with challenges confined to local diocesan-based congregations that could count on support from foreign-based philanthropic organizations.
And it is not just religious orders that are facing funding challenges that lead to locally grown strategies to sustain their operations. Catholic humanitarian agencies in Zimbabwe also report exploring new ways to fund their operations at a time of competing global crises.
In October, Caritas Zimbabwe announced its 2025-2030 strategic plan. The Catholic agency outlined a strategy to “foster community-driven development and reduce reliance on external aid.”
“The fulcrum of this strategic plan is localization,” said Harrington Chuma, Caritas Zimbabwe national coordinator.
The drive toward local fiscal sustainability includes forming partnerships with local communities and utilizing existing local resources for the benefit of vulnerable groups who have for years relied on foreign donor assistance. Mr. Chuma spoke during a meeting that launched the plan, which was also attended by the Archbishop Janusz Urbańczyk, the papal nuncio, as well as business leaders and senior government officials in Harare.
According to Caritas Zimbabwe officials, the strategy to wean the agency from a reliance on foreign funders requires courting local business in the private sector. It will also encourage fundraising through what the agency calls “social enterprise.”
This will ensure that Caritas Zimbabwe “operates as a self-sustaining entity by tapping into the vast land owned by Catholic schools and parishes across the country,” Mr. Chuma said.
According to the plan, this will include commercializing infrastructure by, for example, leasing land to farmers or hiring out facilities for private use. In the past, such buildings were exclusively used for Catholic functions.
Fiscal adaptations in Zimbabwe are occurring at a time of increasing competition for the attention of international donors who have been asked to respond to one global crisis after another, often leaving other urgent humanitarian crises unaddressed due to lack of funding.
The church’s funding crisis is also becoming apparent in other African states that have had a long history of economic hardship. In October, a Malawi bishop raised concerns that the local Catholic Church in his East African nation found it challenging to support seminarians. The public declaration was unprecedented as in the past resources to support formation appeared to be readily available. The bishop explained that the growth of local vocations required more resources.
Meanwhile, the United States-based African Sisters Education Collaborative says it is expanding its footprint in the continent to help religious congregations support themselves through skills training. In August, the group signed a memorandum of understanding with the Conference of Major Religious Superiors in Zimbabwe. Its aim is to enhance educational opportunities for the sisters and support their communities. According to the A.S.E.C., some of the skills gained by Catholic nuns have helped equip them with entrepreneurial skills and helped create jobs for rural African communities.
Congregations in the Global South will continue to face fiscal challenges. For Sister Busvumani, the funding crisis means that her religious community has to double its efforts to pay bills and other day-to-day needs. And their first foray into local fundraising has been hampered by low admissions at the infirmary.
“It’s not easy,” Sister Busvumani said.
