In a bid to strengthen the working relationship between the Episcopal Conference of Malawi’s Communications department and Catholic Commissions in the country, the Communications team has embarked on a familiarization tour in all the eight dioceses in the country.
The Communications Secretary at ECM, Father Andrew Kaufa said the tour started with a visit to Karonga and Mzuzu dioceses respectively where it engaged Commission heads to bang heads on how best to work as one.
“As you know the Catholic Church is so big world over and Malawi in particular. We have quite a number of developments taking place in our dioceses but we lacked publicity hence our visits to strengthen our working relationship with the Commissions,” said Father Kaufa
In Karonga the Catholic Secretariat’s Communications department visited the yet to be established Tintufye Fm of Karonga diocese.
According to Father Kaufa,he was impressed with the progress made to have the radio station in place.
Among others, the diocese has already received the first consignment of equipment donated by SIGNIS and a building for the studios has also been identified already pending some renovations.
The other encouraging thing is the support the radio project is receiving from other Commissions like the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM) .
CCJP’s Desk Officer for Karonga diocese, Mwawi Shaba pledged a total support to the radio project as it will be a tool to disseminate the much needed information to the general public and faithful from Karonga diocese in particular.
From Karonga,it was the turn for Mzuzu diocese where Father Kaufa was also impressed with the programming of Tigawane Radio Station which all in their local language.
Meanwhile, the team is in Chikwawa diocese for a similar mission but already the diocese has shown interest to have its own radio station and all the commissions in the diocese have committed themselves to make sure that they assist Father Matthias Chiwanda who is the Diocesan Communications Secretary and have the radio station in place.
The tour is also expected to visit Blantyre, Zomba, Mangochi, Dedza dioceses. Apart from meeting the Communications Secretaries and heads of Commissions, the Secretariat team is also meeting Directors of Catholic media institutions to appreciate their role in disseminating information.
