AMECEA: Missio Aachen Share New Concept on Project Funding with AMECEA Leadership
AMECEA leadership and representative of Missio Aachen in Nairobi Kenya
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
A long-term key partner for the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA), Missio Aachen from Germany, met with the association’s leadership to enlighten them on the new concepts regarding project funding.
The organization which has existed for over a century, not only aims to raise and strengthen the missionary awareness of the faithful as a community of learning, prayer, and solidarity in Germany but also provides both financial and non-material support for the mission of local Churches in Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
During a two-day meeting in Nairobi from 8-9, February, with AMECEA Executive Board members, the Bishop chairmen for conferences, the Secretaries General, and AMECEA Secretariat staff, representatives from Missio Aachen Mr. Frank Kraus, Director for Foreign Department and Ms. Lea Minkenberg from department of International Relations highlighted that in the spirit of strengthening the principle of subsidiarity, there will be “more co-determination in the allocation of funds by committees from Missio Aachen’s target countries,” and at the same time, there will be “Improved access to country information beyond projects that is on political, economic and social conditions.”
For the realization of the principle of subsidiarity, the Missio Aachen representatives said, “Tasks, actions, and solutions to problems should be undertaken as far as possible in a self-determined and responsible manner, and if possible by the smallest group or lowest level of a form of organization.”
They presented four new models to the AMECEA team that can be used for continued partnership but left it open to the discretion of the association leaders to identify what suits them best.
The four models include the establishment of regional offices, consultation offices, deployment of Southern experts at Missio Aachen, and fonds projects.
On his part, the AMECEA Chairman Bishop Charles Kasonde of Solwezi Diocese in Zambia asked the participants to interact and share more with representatives from Missio Aachen to understand the new modalities better. He hoped the interaction with the partners bear more fruit and increase pastoral collaboration.
