Be missionary
Precious Blood Amici guided by their time with C.PP.S. Missionaries
Editor’s note: Amici are lay associates with a special connection to the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. Some were discerning priesthood before God called them in a different direction, but the influence of their time learning alongside C.PP.S. priests and brothers remains strong. Amici Eric Boos, MA, PHD, JD, LLM, executive director of ZeruZeru, Inc. shares his story of both where God sent him and who God sent him to live out Precious Blood spirituality.
My wife, Karene, and I were married at St. Joseph’s College in a beautifully simple ceremony officiated by my good friend Fr. Scott Kramer, C.PP.S., with whom I spent several years in C.PP.S. formation. He reminded us in his homily that our marriage “was not our own,” but that it “belonged to God and was to be shared with family, friends, and those we were to minister to in the future.” Fr. Scott knew we were headed to Tanzania immediately after our wedding, but none of us knew that it would turn into a 30-year labor of love as Catholic lay missionaries and Amici members of Missionaries of the Precious Blood serving the poor in Tanzania.
We had been invited to help start a Catholic college in Morogoro, Tanzania. We designed courses and curriculums, conducted book drives and organized the library, started athletic teams, conducted capital campaigns, wrote grant proposals, and taught a variety of courses for the college. We spent a lot of time with the Missionaries of the Precious Blood seminarians. Those young men were our support staff and our motivators. They would share new mission projects with us and consistently challenged us to “be missionary” in our attitudes and actions. God worked through them to keep us going. Over the years, we constructed schools, dispensaries, clinics, radio stations, hospitals, and a metal fabrication shop to manufacture equipment for handicapped children.
God’s challenge to us
Two law degrees, three children, and a number of years later, we were asked to help create a law program in Mwanza, Tanzania, at St. Augustine University. There, God presented us with a challenge that we were, quite frankly, unprepared to handle. During one of my lectures on human rights, one of my students politely raised his hand and said, “Professor, are you not aware of the human rights violations here in Tanzania?”
We had been engaged in mission projects in Tanzania for 16 years and had never seen any “human rights violations.” Tanzania is very poor, and there is ample opportunity to engage in mission work and social development projects, but we had never seen any systematic human rights violations. Tanzania is a beautiful, tranquil nation of 122 different tribes peacefully co-existing. But we were unaware of a very dark tradition.
My student shared the plight of people with albinism — the genetic condition in which the body fails to produce the melanin that gives the skin, eyes, and hair pigmentation. Without pigment, people with albinism are extremely susceptible to sunburn, skin cancer, lesions, and vision problems. Even worse, people born with albinism in Tanzania are believed to be evil spirits, or demons, and they are hunted, killed, and mutilated so that their body parts can be sold on the black market for witchcraft or as good luck charms.
Karene immediately wanted to take action. I tried to pass — things like clean water projects were much more my cup of tea. I argued that the problem was deeply rooted in a social myth and far too big of a problem for us to tackle. I argued that it was something for the Tanzanian government or the United Nations to address.
But I had married a missionary, and she wouldn’t let it rest. “We’re going to do something about it,” she said.
How could we possibly change a social myth so deeply rooted in a culture? When black parents have an all-white child, and the people have no grasp of genetics or biology, the simplest explanations dominate: the woman was seduced by a demon, and the child is a demon. People fear children with albinism. They discriminate against them, and they ostracize the entire family. No one will trade with a family that has an albino child; no one will help them; no one will talk to them. Albinism in Tanzania is akin to leprosy in the Old Testament with the added torment that people will kill albinos and sell their body parts.
Oftentimes, the fathers of these children will contract with bounty hunters to come and kill their own children. I read detailed account after detailed account of attacks on albinos. One survivor testified that his father held him down while the bounty hunters chopped his arm off. At his trial, the father asked the court in all sincerity, “What am I to do? If I keep this child, he cannot work because of the sun. He cannot go to school because he is not welcome and cannot see to read. No one will talk to us or help us because of him. I can sell this demon and get enough money to care for the rest of my family forever.”
Karene insisted we had to do something about the issue, and then she asked me why I spent seven years of my life working toward ordination as a Precious Blood priest and why I live as a missionary? Suddenly, all my years in C.PP.S. formation came rushing in on me, and I could hear the voice of Fr. David Kelly, C.PP.S., founder of the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation: “To be a Precious Blood missionary means to go to those places in the world where the Blood of Christ is being shed!”
That’s all it took. I did not become a Precious Blood priest, but that was no excuse not to be a Precious Blood missionary. Those children with albinism in Tanzania are the Body of Christ, and their blood is being shed. My wife called my bluff, and a new mission began.
Dedication to the cause
I had no idea how to tackle this issue, so I used my wonderful Catholic education and researched the issue thoroughly. I discovered that one in every 22,000 human births results in a child with some degree of albinism. But in Tanzania, the number of children born with albinism is closer to one in every 2,000. Various sociological and biological factors contribute to the preponderance of albinism in Tanzania, but the important thing is that we needed to educate others and raise awareness of the issue.
With hope and a prayer, we formed a nonprofit organization in 2013 called ZeruZeru Simama Sasa — which means “People with Albinism Stand Now.” We contacted a Catholic nun in Tanzania, Sister Helena Ntambulwa, whom we had previously sponsored to attend college in the United States. She agreed to adopt this mission and be our onsite manager despite the physical danger and the emotional toll of being ostracized.
We wrote grants and conducted a capital campaign to build a safe-haven compound for the children. Each year since 2013, we have added a building or program. We now have 75 children living at the compound. We provide for their material needs, medication, education, and protection. It is a difficult mission. More children continue to arrive — usually carried by their mothers, who do not want their children to be murdered — but that means we need more funding.
Karene and I have traveled to Tanzania over 30 times since starting our foundation. All four of our children are involved in the organization, and they make the mission trips with us whenever they can. We have worked hard to make the center self-sufficient and sustainable. We have the children growing their own food and raising animals, but there are medical expenses, education, and security to pay for. We hope to establish a guest house that generates revenue for the center and teaches the older children important job skills. Last year, our youngest children, Zeke and Meredith, wrote and recorded an anthem with the children, and we hope to sell copies.
We have had some tense moments dealing with people who believe that children with albinism are demons. We have had tragic moments dealing with sickness and death of some of the children. We have enjoyed the support of the Tanzanian government and even got some of our albino children on stage with the President of Tanzania and the First Lady. We also enjoy the support of our Precious Blood missionary friends from Dodoma when they visit. We offer integrated learning for local children, and we include the locals in our celebrations at the center. Each new building project builds economies of scale for the local community, and this creates a lot of goodwill.
Our work is far from complete. This year, a 10-year-old boy was attacked by bounty hunters with machetes. He was chopped very badly in the head and arm but managed to survive. Additionally, a two-year-old child was kidnapped. His body was found in a plastic bag two weeks later in a ditch. The internal organs and other parts were missing. We have more work to do to protect the Body of Christ.
This is our mission as Amici members of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood — to go where the Blood of Christ is shed. I am thankful for my years of formal education with the C.PP.S. and the many role models I had in the C.PP.S. community. I am also thankful that God paired me up with my wife, Karene, a true missionary!
To learn more, visit savethealbinochildren.org.