MALAWI: Catholic Nuns Under-go Financial Management Training
Sr. Teresa Mulenga (Center) & Sr. Hilaria Chombo (L) Being briefed on what happens at St Marys Center
Catholic Nuns drawn from various congregations within Malawi and others from Kenya and Zimbabwe are undergoing a month long financial management training being held at Association of Women Religious Institutes in Malawi (AWRIM) Secretariat in Lilongwe.
Programs Coordinator for the initiative, Sister Teresa Mulenga of Teresian Sisters says the workshop which is being supported by African Sisters Education Collaborative (ASEC) is aimed at equipping Sisters with knowledge and skills in financial management which is crucial in their day to day undertakings.
Mulenga said, in as much as Sisters strive to preach the Gospel, they need more knowledge in financial management that would eventually increase their financial capacity in managing their respective congregations.
“Yes, our core mission as Sisters is to evangelize. However, we cannot either preach the Gospel if we are not financially stable. We need to keep our Congregations going and of course support the mankind both spiritually and humanitarian hence this workshop is crucial to us,” said Sister Mulenga.
She added that, among others, the sisters will be equipped with skills in preparing cash books, using excel for computing financial transactions, prepare financial budgets, writing project proposal, data collection and report writing just to mention but a few.
“For instance, proposal writing for us as Sisters is very crucial. We need resources and these can only be accessed through proposals to potential funders. We cannot also submit a proposal without a clear budget and therefore we need to know how to prepare budgets. This can be done using a computer and excel is one program which is normally used. At the end of project implementation, we also need to report hence report writing is also important to us,” she said.
Mulenga said the training is ably being facilitated by the Faculty of Commerce of the Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA), as one way of appreciating the benefits of alumina who have benefited from a similar training in the previous years.
Being briefed on what happens at St Marys Center
“We were impressed with what the sisters are doing; firstly, they have successfully ended malnutrition in the area. Currently the sisters are running an orphan centre to care for orphans due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the sisters are also assisting the elderly from the surrounding villages,” said Sister Mulenga.
According to Sister Brenda (in charge orphan department), they are running a number of projects including agribusiness, for smooth running of the activities at the centre, thanks to the training they acquired from ASEC.
Meanwhile, Sister Margaret Thumpwa of the Sisters of Our Lady has commended ASEC for empowering nuns across Africa with such educational skills promising to strive to implement and put into practice what she has learnt during the training.
Eleven Congregations from Malawi and four from Zimbabwe are attending the training making a total number of 19 participants.
ASEC was Founded in 1999 by four Congregation of Women Religious in Pennsylvania together with Colleges and Universities founded by Congregations.
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