AMECEA: Representatives for Catholic Care for Children Encouraged to be Vocal: AMECEA Secretary General
Participants during the CCC training
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
At a training that brought together directors and project managers for the Catholic Care for Children (CCC) from the four countries of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) region that have already begun the program of child care reforms, AMECEA Secretary-General has encouraged the participants to be vocal and enlighten the society about this critical need.
“We have come here as a family because we have a goal that every child needs to experience family love and enjoy a family life environment. In this way, our effort should not end in the CCC program but we need to go beyond the program and make noise for people to know what is beneficial for our children,” Fr. Anthony Makunde shared with about 20 participants who were meeting in Donum Dei, Nairobi, Kenya.
The weeklong training from 21-24 November, acts as the commencement of a two-year capacity building to empower CCC movement institutions to effectively create awareness about care reforms and be in a position to communicate their activities for visibility. and provide participants with robust communication support.
Additionally, the training that was convened by AMECEA Social Communications in collaboration with the National Association of Sisterhoods from various conferences; Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia which are already engaged in the CCC Programme aims to provide robust communication support for Catholic Care Institutions (CCI) through enhanced capacity, collaboration and mainstreaming of holistic CCC approach with the Church’s family apostolate programs.
While addressing the participants in his opening speech, Fr. Makunde reminded the participants that it was a great opportunity “to acquire skills that will help not only to promote, sensitize and publicize the program to the masses but also to ensure that the goal of CCC is realized that every child to have a right and an opportunity to be in a family environment.”
Advocating for the aspect of being vocal the Secretary-General said; “make noise appealing to all people to know the importance of CCC, make noise in a Christian way, make noise in a Catholic way and make noise in a religious way that children have their right to enjoy family love.”
The two-year training to be conducted by the Loyola Centre for Media and Communication (LCMC) is scheduled for 2023/ 2024 in a hybrid manner, where participants will have a one-week physical meeting each year and other sessions to be conducted virtually.
The LCMC aims to empower young people’s resilience against adversities through audio-visual content production, interactive learning spaces, and formative training for parents, guardians, and instructors involved in the holistic development of teens and young people.
