Sunday School Project: A Step Towards a Strong Future Church
By Lino Nyirenda*
The Pastoral Team of St Ignatius Parish has urged the Local Church Committees to embrace the Sunday School project fully if they are to build a strong future Church.
The Parish Priest and Curate of St Ignatius Parish Father Matthews Simwela, and Father Anthony Mwafulirwa carried this common message on Sunday, 29 September, when they administered baptism and first communion at Nthalire and Mwenje outstation centres respectively.
Thirty infants (ten boys and twenty girls) received baptism at Mwenje while seven infants (five boys and two girls) received baptism at Nthalire. Twenty-seven Junior Sunday School children (nine boys and 18 girls) received baptism and First Communion at Mwenje.
Nine of the Junior Sunday School children come from non-Catholic families and have been encouraged by their parents to join Catholicism because of well-grounded and structured Sunday School project. Their parents were present during the ceremony.
Father Mwafulirwa, who examined the children prior to the ceremony, expressed satisfaction in the way they responded to questions an indication that Sunday School Instructors are committed to forming them into strong Catholics.
It has also been observed that Likuni Phala, which is provided when there are instructions, continues to help maintain high numbers of Junior Sunday School children attending instructions as well as liturgy.
Although the Sunday School project is registering successes, one of the notable challenges is late registration of children for baptism, which is attributed to among other thing tithes and fees which are part of the requirements.
The Pastoral Team urged Small Christian Communities and Local Church Committees (LCCs) to be more committed to the faith formation of their children by among other things coordinating well the preparation of porridge for children; identifying potential instructors from Small Christian Communities; continuous training of instructors and encouraging children to be agents of evangelisation to fellow children.
The Sunday School project is being implemented by the Pastoral Commission of the Diocese of Karonga with financial support from the Coppell Family of Mexico.
*Lino Nyirenda is Catechetical Methodology Advisor for St Ignatius Parish
SOPs to Improve Health Service Delivery in Karonga
By Jordan Simeon-Phiri
Correspondent
Vice Chairperson for Karonga District Council, Councillor Ngasalayumo Mwangonde says the signing of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Proactive Disclosure of Information in the Health Sector is a step in the direction to uphold transparency and accountability in the health sector in district.
Councillor Mwangonde made the remarks on last week Monday at Club Marina during the official signing ceremony of SOPs aimed at empowering the community members to access vital information from duty bearers relating to health service delivery.
“This is good development to both duty bearers and rights holders as there will be sense of responsibility whereby community members will play watchdog roles at the same time duty bearers will be accountable,” Mwangonde said.
Taking his turn, Director of Health and Social Services (DHSS) for Karonga Dr. Phineas Mfune said the signing of the booklet is an opportunity to the people of Karonga to access quality health services and give feedback for improvement.
“It is a commitment for us duty bearers to provide information so that community members are able to follow how resources are being used to avoid conflicts that come when there is withholding of information,” Mfune said.
On his part, Project Officer at Justice and Peace Desk of Karonga Diocese Obert Mkandawire, whose organization facilitated the formulation of SOPs, hailed the outgoing District Commissioner Emmanuel Bulukutu for giving consent to the document two years after its adoption, saying it will enhance citizen participation through accessing of information in the health sector.
“Access to information, such as local health sector budgets, health service improvement plans, status of service delivery at health facility such as drug stock levels, council resolutions and district health management team (DHMT) decisions, health service improvement plans, status of service delivery at health facility and district levels such as drug stock levels, is vital.
When citizens access such information, they are able to participate in health decision making at local level. This enhances transparency and accountability and consequently health service delivery is improved,” Mkandawire said.
Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) is financing the Promotion of High Quality Transparent Accountable and Responsive Health Service Delivery project in six traditional authorities (TAs) in Karonga and Chitipa districts.
Justice and Peace Embarks on Three-Year Safeguarding Project
By Lestina Sanga*
The Pastoral and Bishop’s Secretary of the Diocese of Karonga, Father Joseph Sikwese has urged project implementation team for the Safeguarding the Rights of Women and Children and Vulnerable Adults Project to internalize hard work as a norm if the project is to achieve it’s intended objectives.
Father Sikwese made these remarks, on 23 September 2019, during a project inception meeting organized by the Justice and Peace Desk at Zutu House in Karonga. The Justice and Peace Desk briefed the members of staff about the project implementation plan, grant agreement, budgets, audit agreements, and monitoring and evaluation plan.
The meeting was attended by members from all the three sections of the Diocese namely, the Pastoral Commission, Caritas Commission and Directorate of Finance, Investment and Administration. The Pastoral Commission is crucial to the success of the third objective as the project requires the creation of Church structures to safeguard rights of children and vulnerable adults within the Church.
The goal of the project is to ensure that rights of women and girls are respected and protected throughout the diocese. The project seeks to strengthen the observance of children’s rights in all communities of Chitipa District and promote the adoption and implementation of child protection systems in all diocesan schools, hospitals, and parishes. The project will also promote the participation of rural women in in local and public decision making processes.
The project is a response to high prevalence human rights violations on women, children, and other vulnerable groups in the district. Reports also shows that women are being sidelined from the decision making processes. Chitipa, in particular, has registered cases of child labour and child marriages.
The project is a step towards the operationalization of the Child Protection Policy of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi. This is also in line with Catholic Social Teaching principles of human dignity and common good.
Looking at the nature of the project, members recommended that there is a need to network with other organizations which can help children rescued from early marriages. Names of people and organizations were proposed.
This three-year project is being implemented in the areas of traditional authorities Mwaulambia, Mwenemisuku and Kameme in Chitipa District. The project is being implemented with financial support from Misereor Germany to the tune of 213,000EUR equivalent to K176, 790,000.
The project is targeting 12 Group village headmen, 96 villages, 840 households, 840 boys, and 840 girls. The project further targets 1,680 parents, 96 women group members, 36 volunteers and 132 families of traditional leaders. About 4,835 people will directly work with the project. The total number of beneficiaries in all 4 focus parishes (St Michael’s, St John Paul II, Immaculate Heart of Mary and St Matthias) is 15,360.
*Justice and Peace Intern
DCA and Partners Impressed with Progress Of CALGA Project
By Lestina Sanga*
Dan Church AID representatives and partners have commended the Community Action Groups (CAGs) and the Community Journalists (CJs) from T/A Kyungu in Karonga District for their efforts in promoting transparency and accountability in management of public funds in local councils, under the Citizen Action in Local Governance Accountability (CALGA).
Speaking during partners Joint Monitoring Visit at Mwenilondo, on 25 September 2019, Chisomo Zileni, Head of Programmes at ADC highlighted the introduction of CAGs and CJs in the CALGA project is increasing community’s enthusiasm to hold duty bearers to account.
He commended the coordination CJs and CAGs have brought among councilors, traditional leaders, local government structures and other stakeholders.
He further observed that these structures are full of life; a pointer towards sustainability of the project. He expressed the need for documenting the progress of the project to profile the cases from Karonga for learning purposes.
She further urged the CAGs and CJs to be involving the media when the duty bearers are not committed to meeting the community to account for their actions or omissions.
During the meeting CAGs and CJs presented the cases of development projects which remain unfinished years after the contractors were pain in full by the local assembly. They reported that they have been holding interface meetings and making follow ups at the district council to ensure that contractors are taken to task. The projects in question are Mlare Market Shelter and Wiliro Police Unit under the District Development Fund.
CAGs and CJs also demonstrated that capacity gained from the project has helped bridge information gap between the community, District councils and MPs . They said this has helped in reducing politicization of Constituency Development Fund.
CJs investigate stories around local development projects and produce reports based on their findings. They also work hand in hand with professional journalists, who play a mentorship role. Their stories are published on www.karonga/chitipacjs.wordpress.com and aired on Tuntufye FM Radio.
DCA organized the joint monitoring visits to allow partners learn from each other’s implementation strategies; appreciate changes in rights holders’ lives by understanding how changes are documented and to agree on actionable work plan to strengthen synergy.
In Karonga, it was attended by the following DCA partners; Malawi Human Rights Resource Centre (MHRRC), Youth and Society (YAS), SPRODETTA, CADECOM Mzuzu Diocese, Livingstonia Synod Health Department, WORLEC, CCJP Lilongwe and Evangelical Association of Malawi.
The Justice and Peace Desk of the Diocese of Karonga is implementing CALGA project to contribute towards transparency and accountability in management of local development resources in district councils with funding from Irish Aid through DCA.
*Justice and Peace Intern