Jordi Mas Castells


Jordi Mas Castells was a Spanish priest who lived and worked from 1961 to his death in Cameroon, mainly in the Far North Region, close to lake Chad. In Cameroon he made hundreds of wells, built hospitals, founded schools and organized workshops to improve the knowledge of women from different communities.
In 2008, the town council in La Garriga honoured him as Illustrious Citizen.

Biography

Early life

Jordi Mas was born in La Garriga on 14 March 1930. At 24 he was ordained and his first destinations as vicar were Esplugues de Llobregat, la Geltrú and the Miraculosa parish in Barcelona. In 1961 he left as a missionary to a much harder scenery, which he himself chose: first some cities in the south of Cameroon and later in the Far North Region of the country in the wide Sahel strip. His last towns were Makary and Blangoua, close to lake Chad, in Muslim black Africa. From 1961 to 2010 he worked supporting his small congregations and helping them in educational, healthy and social areas.

Missionary career

When he arrived he realized those people didn’t need a missionary —as they were mostly either animists or Muslims— but they needed his help in their most basic needs such as food, water, health, education...
''Jordi Mas Castells, missionary

Progressively he specialized in building wells which stopped villagers, particularly girls, the weakest ones in that society, from walking long distances to get water to drink for both their families and cattle. During his long stay in the country he built hundreds of them.
Mas was also aware that health was one of the weaknesses of the region. Therefore, together with the Swiss doctor Giuseppe Maggi he founded the hospitals of Tokombéré, Zina and Mada.In the latter, a heath reference center, he worked driving patients in a jeep-ambulance for many years, a job which enabled him to get to know the territory and, mainly, to be close to the 250,000 inhabitants living in the surroundings of the hospital, a vast area of about 200 kilometres including four countries: Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.
In 1988 when doctor Maggi died, Jordi Mas went on to school founding, as it was evident for him that people without education have neither hope nor future. As a result of this work in 1998 he opened the big professional school of Blangoua CEFAVIHAR, next to lake Chad. In this school, which also includes a student residence promoted by Mans Unides, about forty youngsters from the villages near the lake can learn mechanics, electricity, welding, carpentry, business managering, sewing, typing, computer studies... Besides there is a primary school with 500 pupils which was created thanks to the collaboration of some Catalan organizations grouped together in the charity Makary-Blangoua
In recent years, Mas focused on the home FEMAK , a meeting point for women of all religions in the region of Makary to relate, learn and exchange experiences. They had sewing workshops, computers and vegetable gardens and classrooms where they received education about health, eating habits and cooking.
His great knowledge of the region was crutial in other projects: accommodation for the teachers in Blangoua, the FEMAK home and the residence for charity workers in Makary... The last project he was keen to develop in 2009 was the growing of a seaweed rich in proteins called spirulina, which grows really well in areas like lake Chad.

Later life

In 2010 he fell ill and travelled to La Garriga to undergo the treatment which enabled him to go back to his home in Makary. However, he died on Thursday 18 November that year. He is buried in La Doma cemetery, in La Garriga.
Jordi Mas died, but his work is fully alive helping the people near the lake. Nowadays, November 2015, the Italian Fabio Musi, a long term Cameroon resident, is responsible for the general coordination of the different parishes and schools. He does it from Maroua, the Far North Region capital city of the country. In the last two parishes where the priest from La Garriga worked, namely Makary and Blangoua, there are two native priests in charge.

Awards received