MALAWI: Religious Women in Malawi Challenged to be Vigilant in Mobilizing Resources
Participants Group Photo
Prince Henderson
The Secretary General for the Association of Women in Religious Institutes of Malawi (AWRIM), Sister Bernadette Munyenyembe says apart from the noble religious role, Catholic nuns should embrace hard working spirit by mobilizing resources to address the socio-economic issues affecting their congregations and communities.
Sister Munyenyembe said this in Lilongwe on the sidelines of a week-long training workshop of proposal writing and project management for Superiors drawn from various congregations in Malawi.
She said following an assessment that AWRIM conducted in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the association, it among others identified some gaps including lack of skills by nuns in project proposal writing and management hence the training.
“We therefore engaged a consultant from Ghana who came up with a capacity building implementation plan that included training project cycle management and proposal writing. It is very important to engage Sisters in such training because they are running several institutions like hospitals, farms and some take of orphans that require funds and resources,” she said.
According to Sister Munyenyembe, donors cannot be convinced by just a word of mouth but requires one to be creative and pitch out needs and later put up a convincing proposal and be funded.
“Yes, you can identify a need, put up a winning proposal but now you need to effectively implement it. By project implementation, we talk of proper management of resources and funds. This is now the wh
ole reason these nuns are also undergoing the project management component to deepen the skills and win donor confidence,” said Sister Munyenyembe of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Rosary.
Dr. Mark Mantey, facilitator of the training said project cycle management course is designed to introduce participants to project cycle, the various stages of the cycle and the responsibilities of project managers along the cycle.
“Participants{nuns} will have the opportunity to perform tasks related to the analysis and design stages of project cycle and use that information to write winning proposals. Key learning words include project cycle management, logical framework, log frame matrix, needs assessment, stakeholder, problem and solution analysis among others,” said Mantey.
One of the participants, Sister Florence Manja said she was delighted to have attended the training such that the skills and knowledge she has acquired will help her to write winning proposals and manage the projects well.
Over 40 nuns from 20 congregations from all the seven dioceses attended the training which was made possible with financial support from African Sisters Education Collaborative (ASEC).
