Saint John’s Benedictine Volunteer Corps
Mvimwa, Tanzania
Monastery Facts
Holy Spirit Abbey is a daughter community of Hanga Abbey. Seeking an opportunity to branch out and reach other communities, as well as recruit more young African men to the Benedictine way of life, Hanga Abbey founded Holy Spirit Abbey on June 3, 1979 near the regional capital of Sumbawanga in western Tanzania. Promoted to the status of Abbey in 2001, Holy Spirit Abbey runs a dispensary in the village of Mvimwa as well as a boarding school for grades K-7.
In addition to this primary school, the abbey has been charged with the task of running Chemchemi Secondary school in the city of Sumbawanga. Due to the distance between the abbey and Sumbawanga, the community also maintains a house in the city where three monks live while working at the school.
Visit the monastery’s home site.
Work of the SJBVC
SJBVC volunteers live and eat 
alongside the monks who run the secondary school in Sumbawanga. Meals are provided by the community. Volunteers’ primary work is teaching at the secondary school. Volunteers will also get the opportunity to visit the abbey in Mvimwa and could spend some time working in the dispensary or farm there. There is also an opportunity to volunteer at an orphanage nearby. The Monastery maintains a retreat house on the shores of lake Tanganyika that the volunteers will have time to visit.
