BY STEVE CHIROMBO
JANUARY 29, MANA: Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) in the Diocese of Chikwawa in conjunction with the Centre for Social Concern (CfSC) on Wednesday donated 23 bicycles valued at K2.3 million to Advocacy group members under Traditional Authority (TA) Maseya in Chikwawa.
CfSC’s Project Officer, Kondwani Hara said the donation was made through the Right to Food Project funded by the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP).
“We thought of establishing community advocacy group in collaboration with the CCJP of Chikwawa to empower them that they can hold duty bearers accountable on issues of right to food.
“Today, we are giving them the bicycles to improve their mobility since they do community research on issues pertaining to right to food and makes them cover long distances to collect that information,” he said.
Hara advised the community advocacy group members to take proper care of the bicycles.
CCJP Diocesan Secretary for Chikwawa, Lewis Msiyadungu said the organization decided to give the bicycles to the members to ease their work.
“These bicycles will assist them to ease their mobility since they are assigned to collect data as well as monitoring and report on the issues of justice and peace in social services,” he said.
Msiyadungu acknowledged the good work community advocacy group members were doing; saying, they were mere volunteers.
One of the bicycle beneficiaries, Jenifa Thobowa expressed her gratitude towards the initiative, expressing hope that the bicycles would assist her and her colleagues when carrying out their duties.
“The bicycles will help us do our duties easier than before as we previously we had to walk long distances,” she said.
Thobowa commended CCJP and CfSC for the tremendous developments being implemented in their community.
He said through the projects under the two organizations, the advocacy group has managed to bring back to school over 23 girls in the area.
The project under TA Maseya in Chikwawa is also receiving funding from other partners such MISEREOR, HIVOS and Trocaire.
Under the project, CCJP aims to raise awareness on social justice, human rights and their corresponding duties in the community that the church serves.
