The biggest challenge facing Ocodri Parish is the limited size of the chapel yet the population is growing fast. The last national population census (2015) by the government indicated a population dominated by peasant farmers who are low-income earners with average or even no education up to 31695 people: 5769 men and 7990 women. It 8896 and 9040 young boys and young girls respectively; a sum of 10876 from these said young boys and girls were below the age of 8 years old by then. As the population has kept growing, the space available has become insufficient to accommodate the Christian population who are willing but not able to financially contribute to church obligations which has in turn caused insufficient funds for the church to run its annual activities thus the need and request for any kind of assistance for the completion of the church building which if completed will be bigger and better to shelter Christians from sunshine, winds and disturbances from animals during Sunday celebrations and other church functions.

 

 

Details about the progress of the project:

The plan is to complete the construction of Christ the King Church Chapel which was started way back in 2004 with brick laying and raising up the walls up to the ring beam level. The Christians in this chapel have the will and interest to build their own church but due to low income, the project came to a standstill. When Fr. Richard Buni was installed as parish priest in 2013, this project became a new dimension.

 

 

He wrote to some donors to support the completion of the chapel. One of the donors, The Archdiocese of Colon, approved his proposal in 2016 but the money was not given owing to insufficient accountabilities from various other projects that were ongoing at that time. The appointment of a new project manager in 2017 however, has solved most of these challenges. Through the project office, a clear and re-structured process of project proposal, receiving support and accountability has since been put in place. This is the reason why the project was re-designed in 2020. A new architectural plan and bill of quantities was prepared by the project civil engineer and it was possible to find other co-finances to get the funds to complete the whole project.