The Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa or AMECEA appealed to safeguarders to reaffirm their commitment in their role of providing safety and protection of children and vulnerable adults.
The appeal was made this week in Nakuru, Kenya during the opening of regional workshop for child safeguarding officers, AMECEA Online News reported.
‘We are here to reaffirm our commitment, to wipe the tears from the many faces of children within our communities’ AMECEA Secretary General Fr. Anthony Makunde said.
He added that ‘we are here to reaffirm our commitment to stop more children from shading tears. Indeed, they have been shading tears for too long a time’.
Fr Makunde said they are not going to stay in offices and do business as usual, no! There are issues happening in our local contexts, which call for our attention.
He reminded the child safeguarding officers that their responsibility is to protect all children irrespective of religion for the challenge is a social issue.
‘Whether it’s a Christian leader from another Christian denomination or faith community, whether he is a parent or a guardian who has abused a child, that too touches us because when they talk of religious leaders, we are all in one boat,’ he clarified.
The three-day conference was a follow up of the first one held in 2019 in Ethiopia, and brought together participants from seven AMECEA countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, South Sudan and Ethiopia.