Link with St Andrew's Church, Paddock Wood
Bereko parish is linked with St Andrew's, Paddock Wood in the UK Diocese of Rochester (https://www.standrewspw.org.uk).
The companion link is still flourishing now as is the tree of friendship between the parishes, which was planted in 2006.
A team from St Andrew's Paddock Wood usually visits every two years and over time many good friendships have formed between both communities.
St Andrew's, Paddock Wood, has supported an number of projects such as the building of St Andrew's, Bereko, the clergy houses at Bereko and Kikilo and other community projects.
The link between St Andrew’s, Bereko and St Andrew’s Paddock Wood has expanded over the years to include the Primary Schools and Secondary Schools in each community, and in 2012 both Town Councils formally signed a Friendship Agreement at a Paddock Wood church service which included Bishop Given Gaula and the Deputy High Commissioner of Tanzania.
In Paddock Wood, the Bereko Community Partnership has been established, which brings together the own Council, the Primary and Secondary Schools and the church and coordinates all the activities and communications between the two communities in Bereko and in Paddock Wood. Further information is available on its website here: http://www.bereko.co.uk
A major project of the Bereko Community Partnership is support for the Bereko community's registered entity the Bereko Garden Group. The Bereko Garden Group has two main objectives:
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to educate the community about new agricultural practices through a model farm and other community projects in the schools and elsewhere and
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to make profits from its model farm that can be used to self fund community projects
One of the latest projects by the Bereko Gardening Group has been to plant fruit trees in the schools (see below).
A group from the UK Rochester Diocese visited Bereko in April 2024. These pictures show them inspecting the flourishing agricultural projects.
Banana trees at Kurasini Primary School, nurtured by the students and now nearly ready to harvest in 2024
Bishop Given presenting medicines to the town dispensary, a gift from the Paddock Wood community to the Bereko community.
