MALAWI: Catholic Women Organization Cleans Blantyre City
The Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) in the Archdiocese of Blantyre on Friday last week, cleaned Ndirande Township in Blantyre City as part of Earth Action Initiative on environment.
The cleaning exercise in Ndirande Township follows a call to action in the face of the plastic and toxic waste crisis the environment has witnessed.
Speaking after the cleaning exercise in Ndirande, chairlady of CWO in the Archdiocese of Blantyre, Lucy Vokhiwa, said the initiative was a direct response to Genesis 2 in the Holy Bible which teaches about man’s responsibility over nature.
“After God had created everything, He told man to be responsible over nature; but instead of us caring for the environment, we are destroying it,” said Vokhiwa.
She further urged women in Malawi to join efforts in beating plastic pollution through shunning the use of thin plastics that are not friendly to the environment.
Archdiocese Cleaning up Market
“Women do use plastics bags each day. My plea is that they should use those plastics that are recommended for use as environmental friendly, and at the same time reusing them as a way of fighting against plastic pollution,” she added.
Ndirande Market Chairperson, Chancy Widoni applauded CWO in the Archdiocese of Blantyre for cleaning the market saying they have helped business operators to have a clean environment.
“They are a lot of people who are doing business in this market, and sometimes we fail to clean the whole market, and that makes us not to have a clean market. With the Catholic women’s coming, they have really helped us” said Widoni.
In the encyclical letter Laudato Si, Pope Francis urges people of good will to preserve nature by among other things taking good care of the environment. He expressed is concern on the current state of environmental degradation and called all stakeholders to take action on preserving nature.
This prompted Catholic women in the World under World Union of Catholic Women Organisation (WUCWO) to avert the crisis by organising plastic and waste clean-up events at nearest ocean beaches, lakefronts, riverbanks, roadways, ditches and public spaces across the globe.
WUCWO also urged CWO women to organize sensitization campaigns about plastic waste crisis and advocate for practices that are environmental friendly.
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By Luke Bisani, Archdiocese of Blantyre Communications Department
