Ludwig Prince of Bavaria, 42, has started a new construction project in northern Kenya. After two years of planning, a church with a rectory and sisters’ convent is now to be built on Lake Turkana as a contact point for the population and for the young people of the nearby “Learning Lions” training center, said the international Catholic aid organization Missio in Munich.
“We want to show here how positive educational work works – this includes everything from electricity and water supply to schools, kindergartens and of course our projects in which young adults learn how to earn money through IT services,” said Ludwig von Bavaria laying the foundation stone together with Missio President Monsignor Wolfgang Huber.
With the non-profit organization “Learning Lions”, the future head of the House of Wittelsbach has been involved in the region, which is considered one of the most remote and poorest in the country, for more than ten years. Once you reach a certain size, you need a place where people feel comfortable and also have the opportunity to live out their faith, explained the Wittelsbacher, who is expecting his first child with his wife Sophie-Alexandra. “That’s why it’s very important to us to build a church here.” The Loropio Girls’ High School for girls was also recently opened there, Missio said.
The project in the Turkana region is the continuation of a long tradition of the House of Wittelsbach and Missio. King Ludwig I of Bavaria founded the Ludwig Mission Association in 1838. This resulted in today’s Missio Munich.