MALAWI: Gender and Disability Disparities at National Epiphany Sunday Celebrations
Epiphany Sundays children in prayers of the faithful at Dedza Parish
Sam Kalimba
The 2023 national epiphany celebrations that were held in the Catholic Diocese of Dedza, Malawi, were marred by gender imbalance and lack of children with disabilities’ involvement. This is according to an independent report submitted to the National Pontifical Mission Society (PMS) office.
Even though the report highlighted lack of involvement of people with disabilities including an interpreter for sign language to assist individuals with hearing impairment, there was no mentioned if the event was designed in a way that would allow individuals with mobility impairments to participate fully. It also says no child with disability was seen to have taken part in that important event for the children.
Additionally, the report faulted organizers of the event for a disparity in participation between boys and girls, with girls participating more than boys.
The report says that this is discrimination on the part of the disabled and a violation of the principle of non-discrimination highlighted in Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 3 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which state that both shall be implemented with the understanding that a child is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth therein without discrimination of any kind, regardless of the child’s or parent’s race, color, sex, language, religion, political or another opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or another status.
The report recommends that the Church in Malawi, at all levels, must ensure the inclusion and non-discrimination of all children, regardless of their abilities, gender, socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity in the next event involving children. It maintains that this can be achieved by promoting the values of equality, fairness and justice in all programs and activities, and by implementing policies and procedures that protect children from discrimination, in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) guidelines.
The report further faults the length of Mass that took four hours, lack of adequate sensitization to community youths to inspect mounted pavilions, and lack of play games and activities after Mass.
Rev. Fr. Vincent Mwakhwawa, National PMS Director acknowledged having received the report and said that the directorate will be working on the shortfalls to ensure that the Church is working with children while safeguarding their universally agreed upon rights.
“We indeed engaged an independent expert on child rights, Ms. Louisa Kwapata to analyse for us the national event on Epiphany Sunday. We are happy with the positives in the report mainly on part of children’s observance and demonstration of liturgy and rites. On our part we know we are doing fine in the catechesis among our children. However, we have learnt that the church needs to ensure that girls and boys are nurtured into looking at the girls and boys having equal opportunities in participation. As the girl child is being uplifted, the boy child should not be suppressed. We have also learnt how to include children with disabilities and how we can reach out to them with the Church teaching,” said Fr. Mwakhwawa.
The report also mentions of the other seven events that took place in the other dioceses. Malawi has two archdioceses and six dioceses managed by two ecclesiastical provinces of Blantyre and Lilongwe.
