KENYA: Catholic Nun Sounds Clarion Call for Congregations to Make Use of Financial Tools
Sr. Consolata Aloo, FSSA
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
In the realization of the existing gap in the use of financial management controls in some Religious congregations, a Catholic nun after a two-month journey with five different congregations in Kenya on financial management interventions, has strongly recommended the use of financial tools to help congregations’ control and analyze their financial position.
After several years of service in various institutions on financial-related matters, Sr. Consolata Aloo, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Anna (FSSA), who was the lead consultant in the project initiated by the Centre for Research in Religious Life and Apostolate (CERRA-Africa), understands the challenges faced by Religious women on the use of financial management tools and the significance of the congregations’ upholding their values to remain stewards in the vineyard of the Lord.
CERRA- Africa is a project of Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, whose mission is to strengthen the capacity, collaboration, and knowledge of Religious women in tracking critical information on the impact and sustainability of Religious life and Apostolate. It is a data Centre that supports Catholic Sisters to conduct and participate in action research, empowering them to make decisions about their lives and apostolate on tangible evidence as they focus on creating strong networks among congregations to enhance positive transformations in their sisters’ lives, ministries, and the communities they serve.
During the two-month training from mid-August to mid-October which was a pilot program, Sr. Aloo’s key role was to guide the Sisters in the financial management processes “to enhance the internal controls that can help them seal the sources where financial resources can be mismanaged and enable them understand how to come up with financial management policy and procedure manual.”
According to Sr. Aloo the Executive Secretary for the Next Generation Leadership Programme (NGLP) at Tangaza University College (TUC), the congregations identified by CERRA Africa for the financial management training included the Camillian Sisters, the Daughters of Jesus the Good Shepherd, the Daughters of St. Anne, the Nazareth Sisters, and the Sisters of Emmanuel.
The training which kicked off at different times in two countries within the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) region; Kenya and Zambia Sr. Aloo said, “Will serve as a roadmap for the congregations’ activities and initiatives, to foster collaboration, enhance capacity, achieve positive transformation and ensure the sustainability of projects in the lives and service of the congregations.”
In her observation, the 65 Sisters who were trained from the different congregations, were identified from various age groups and apostolates, a combination that gave opportunity to all for sustainability purposes.
“I have loved and admired the engagement with the sisters and the combination of participants. There was good representation from the congregations in terms of age gap and apostolates, this was well spread,” the Kenyan nun said and shared more on her experience, “It has also portrayed a positive response from the sisters, their willingness to learn and openness in sharing the existing gaps that need to be sealed so as to improve in their performance.”
After the training which saw each of the five congregations develop a financial policy and procedures manual which acted as a great achievement, Sr. Aloo discloses that there is a plan to continue mentoring the sisters during the implementation process.
She further encouraged the participants of the project to put more effort into the implementation saying, “It may require a lot of sacrifices but it is important to remain accountable with a maximum level of integrity since this will set a precedence for the future generations in the congregation.”
She further appealed to CERRA-Africa that after the pilot program, they may open up the project to more congregations since the training proved that “It was a great need for the sisters to carry out their activities including financial management professionally.”
On his part, Mr. Herman Ekisa Emoto, who was the associate consultant during the training, said their input emphasized that “When coming up with a budget, every activity starts with planning, accompanied with an explanation of all the planned activities which need to be elaborate.”
