By Prince Henderson
The Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) will from 29th August to 5th September this year host the World Union of Catholic Women Organisation (WUCWO) where delegates from 22 African countries will grace the conference, national Chairlady for CWO, Bernadette Chiwaya has confirmed.
According to Chiwaya, the conference which will officially be opened by a Holy Mass at Civo Stadium on Wednesday 31st August, will be hosted under the theme “Women of Africa Proclaimers of God’s Mercy” Come and see a man who told me everything I did could this be the Messiah taken from the book of John 4:29.
“There are other equally important topics to be discussed during the conference and among them include; hope in Action in the service of the family, youth and the suffering in Africa; the phenomenon of treat women, children and trafficking in Africa and WUCWO women of Africa in the light of Evangelical Gaulderma of Pope Francis,” said Chiwaya adding that the closing Mass will be at the venues of the conference- Bingu International Conference Centre (BICC) In Lilongwe on Sunday, September 5.
She said the conference is also aimed at promoting the presence, participation and co-responsibility of Catholic women in society and Church, in order to enable them to fulfill their mission of evangelization and work for human development.
Apart from that, Chiwaya said the conference will also look at an African woman as agent of development, dialogue, peace and justice: a key to a stable and prosperous Africa; access to safe drinking water and sanitation is a human right: the situation in Africa; Climate Change; and youth and their contribution to and or benefit from evangelical work, peace, justice and equitable sustainable development.
“There are lots of benefits from this conference and this ranges from an international exposure, learning from other international organizations hence share experience and at the same time many Malawian women will have an opportunity to learn more about World Union of Catholic Women Organisation,” said Chiwaya.
Meanwhile, Chairperson for the Publicity Committee for the conference, Prudence Kadiwa said resource mobilisation and fundraising activities have been lined up so as to host a successful conference.
“For instance, every Catholic woman will contribute money through Small Christian Communities. The laity themselves in all the parishes will also contribute. Apart from that, we have arranged several fundraising activities like dinner and dance and sale of a cloth,” said Kadiwa.
She called on people of good will to financially and materially contribute towards the success of the conference.
WUCWO has member organizations from five regions namely, Africa, Asia- Pacific, Europe, Latin America/ Caribbean and North America.
Last WUCWO conference was held in Fatima Portugal in 2014 whereas the last WUCWO Africa region conference was held in Nigeria in February 2013.
The conference is expected to host 200 international delegates and 250 local delegates.