CATHOLIC CHURCH DRILLS SUNDAY SCHOOL INSTRUCTORS ON CHILD RIGHTS
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- Published: Wednesday, 25 September 2019 10:21
The Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Blantyre has drilled Sunday School instructors on how they can safeguard and promote child rights in Malawi.
During their two-day workshop at Limbe Cathedral last week, the instructors were enlightened on some of the Child rights they must advocate in various churches under Limbe and Namame Parishes in the Archdiocese.
Speaking during the workshop, Pastoral Secretary for the Diocese of Zomba, Father Innocent Chiwanda who was the guest of honor and facilitator of the workshop, said the Catholic Church is committed to ensuring that child rights are not violated through enlightening other stakeholders in the Church on how they can promote rights of Children.
Fr Chiwanda speaking to the instructors during the workshop
Father Chiwanda referred to the 2014 Child Protection Policy as the current national guide under Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) on this commitment.
“We are expecting quite a lot from these instructors and we want change to start with them as they deal directly with our children in Churches they are coming from. We have shared a lot of skills with these instructors on how they can protect our children from various forms of abuse” said Father Chiwanda.
He further said that all Catholic Christians are being asked to abide by the child protection policy of 2014. In a special way those working for the Church commissions in Malawi are supposed to implement it and make sure that their activities are sensitive to child care, justice and protection.
One of the instructors who attended the workshop, Thoko Belo applauded the Church for sharing knowledge of child rights to them, saying they are to now to be agents of change in churches they are coming from.
“The workshop has really helped us because we are now able to know various rights for children and how we can help them to understand their rights and what action they can take if their rights have been violated” said Belo.
Besides the knowledge of child rights, the instructors were also drilled on how to handle children living with disabilities. They were further drilled on sign language skills as a way of ensuring that they offer inclusive teaching of the Catholic church doctrines to children who are deaf.
Over fifty Sunday school instructors from various churches in Limbe and Namame parishes attended the workshop.