CANA in Tanzania will celebrate its 25th anniversary in December 2026. The mission is thriving in Dar es Salaam, bringing together many dynamic and highly committed young couples. CANA is also active in regions such as Morogoro, Dodoma, Mpwapwa, Iringa, and Arusha, and will soon expand to Mbeya.
The main purpose of our visit was to lead a training session for CANA leaders in Dar es Salaam: the national CANA team, regional teams, and fraternity leaders from across the country were invited. Since we wanted to kick off the CANA year, we also decided to extend a broader invitation to CANA couples in Dar es Salaam. More than 50 couples attended, and we were hosted by the Capuchins at the Padre Pio Center.
It was a blessed three days, with couples who were very present and deeply committed. Lauds, personal prayer, time as a couple, an evening of reconciliation… the couples were able to take the time to recharge. We primarily introduced the CANA Year, which was well received. The national team must now decide whether the CANA Year will launch only in Dar es Salaam in January 2027 or also in the regions.
All of our training sessions were conducted in English but translated into Swahili. Swahili is the country’s main language, which fosters a strong sense of unity despite the presence of more than 120 ethnic groups.
Next, we held a day of training with all the CANA couples from Dar es Salaam. About 40 couples attended, and we primarily worked in four groups. Each group was tasked with exploring a new initiative using CANA International’s educational materials and discerning how that initiative might be applied in Dar es Salaam. The four initiatives were: the annual CANA Parents program, the CANA Family weekend, the CANA Family week, and the new handbook for fellowship leaders. The couples greatly appreciated this collaborative effort. It was an opportunity to discuss the challenges of inculturation in our CANA educational approach and to discern together what can be adapted to each country. The couples were very happy with this day, during which they took an active role and were involved in the discussion.
We then took the train to visit some CANA regions, such as Morogoro, and then Mpwapwa, near Dodoma.
It was a wonderful trip that filled us with joy and gave us great hope for CANA in East Africa!
