It can only happen in the Islands, so they say. It took us a whole year for a land agreement with the church, organized the architectural map of the shop and a new estimate to finally get a building permit. Now we have it we can proceed to start this project in earnest. With the funding support from SVDP NZ and contribution from the local Conferences and allocation of a small plot of land from the Maufanga Catholic Parish of the Diocese of Tonga and Niue was only a dream a year ago and it is now a reality.
Two forty-foot container will be made into a permanent SSVP Shop for the National Council of Tonga. Following the successful SVDP Shops model in NZ and Australia the Tonga SSVP National Council with the help of our fraternal brothers and sisters in both countries to turn the shop into a center where we can help the poor in Tonga through availing at low costs to families and individuals a variety of goods – clothing, kitchen ware, utensils, beddings, as well as a gift shop selling catholic medals, rosaries, prayer books, vestments for priest, candles, alter linen, deacons and altar boys and souvenirs, etc
