ACWECA: Registers Success in Implementation of Last Plenary Assembly Mandates
Sr. Grace Candiru, MSMMC
The Association of Consecrated Women in Eastern and Central Africa, (ACWECA) has successfully implemented three of its key mandates received during its last Plenary Assembly, Sr. Cecilia Njeri has said.
Sister Njeri who is the President of the 10-member country regional body said this today during the presentation of ACWECA General report. The mandates which according to her included formation and mission, enhanced family and youth ministry and organizational development and growth were implemented through workshops aimed at building the Sisters’ capacities in various fields.
In the area of formation, she said the thrust was to have adequately prepared and strategically deployed Consecrated women witnessing to Christ in ACWECA Region. In line with this, the organization moved in to strengthen formation both at the initial and ongoing stages as well as strengthening leadership capacity or superiors in the region.
“Forty-one major Superiors have completed the three modules of our leadership programmes with 23 Sisters having completed six-week chapter facilitation training,” she said, some of the achievements being in the area of formation.
She said ACWECA has also reached out to facilitate several trainings in six of their member countries in which a total of 458 Sisters have benefited. “Six national Associations in the region have proposed or endorsed various topics for ongoing formation programmes for formators and leaders of different Religious institutes and these have been successfully done,” she continued.
Still in the area of formation, she said ACWECA had received a multicounty grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation whereby national Associations of Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania South Sudan, Uganda and Zambia are implementing a three-year formation programme. She noted that many of these programmes have now been conducted online due the current situation of the Covid19.
some sessions
“But while online programmes have helped ACWECA realize some of its formation goals, it nevertheless lacks the practical aspects which take place when programmes are on site,” she pointed out this as due to lack of interactivity.
Sister Njeri also observed that this was a disadvantage especially to countries that have challenges with connectivity, saying they won’t be able to benefit from such programmes.
The ACWECA President who is also the Mother General of the Little Sisters of St. Francis noted with satisfaction that the Association had published the ACWECA Chapter Directory the “Religious Formation Programme Development and Implementation Template”.
“The regional template was developed to respond to the needs of formation as expressed by different Institutes and Member countries within the region,” she said adding that the template serves as a tool for Formators to be used as a reference for initial and on-going formation of members in the Region.
In the area of enhanced family and youth ministries, Sister Njeri said ACWECA had taken on increased child rights and protection intervention in the region adding that ACWECA has developed Children and Vulnerable Adults Protection Training Guide. This, she said would remind the Sisters about the bigger role they have to play to ensure that children and vulnerable adults are protected in all spheres of their ministries.
Additionally, the ACWECA President said the Association through Catholic Relief Services was also coordinating the implementation Early Childhood Development programmes in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia and that there were plans to scale the programme to other countries in the region.
For effective ministry to the youth and young people in general, ACWECA in partnership with Centre for Applied Research in Apostolate (CARA) of Georgetown University in the USA carried out a research to determine Sisters’ needs. According to the ACWECA Secretary General Sr. Hellen Bandiho who was the lead researcher, the research identified areas which Sisters mentioned as priorities.
“We have identified some key areas and ACWECA is now using these results to solicit funding which will enable training in those areas and thus bridge the gaps highlighted,” Sr. Bandiho said.
Meanwhile, Sr. Hellen also said ACWECA plans to firmly take on catechesis of the youth in families for enhanced family life and also to thrust the Association in taking up and implementing Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation programs.
In the area of organizational development and growth, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) facilitated even the formation of ACWECA’s Board meetings as well as funding administrative costs and other formation programmes. This she said was in addition to a long list of other cooperating partners whom they listed in their report to the 18th Plenary Assembly.
The Secretary General who has been at the helm of the Regional body since January 2020, also identified sustainability of Sisters’ ministries as a key concern in the region. In line with this, she said ACWECA in 2018 developed sustainability project dubbed the Sisters Blended Value Project (SBVP).
“This project is to help Sisters ministries to be sustainable through transforming their social apostolates into social enterprises through giving them entrepreneurial skills,” she said.
She added that the project recruited 11 congregations from six countries at the pilot stage in March 2019 and that as of today, 18 countries are participating in the project. While many congregations are keen to join the project, she said ACWECA lacks enough funding for seed money. This is in addition to congregational challenges where congregational leaders do not earmark capable Sisters to efficiently run the project.
