Asked why CI combined various Caritas entities in Africa and MONA for the training workshop, Annamária said, “In the past, we used to hold huge global events which benefited only the few that managed to come. Today, we try to combine organizations that have similar challenges and attract all our members.”
“Organizations that are here from the Middle East are of similar size to those in Africa. The two regions also tend to share experiences. A few months back, we combined Asia, Oceania and a section of the Middle East where we had observed near-similar challenges,” the CI Official said.
Meanwhile, the Secretary General of Caritas Africa, Lucy Esipila, lauded the collaborative workshop, saying, “It was really important for us to do this with Caritas MONA which covers northern Africa, Djibouti and Somalia.”
“It was amazing to see the region-to-region cooperation. After this, we wish to see more strengthened relationships between Caritas Africa and Caritas MONA because we share a lot of experiences,” Ms. Esipila told ACI Africa in an interview.
The Kenyan official said that she is still new in her role on the continent, adding that she had found the training workshop helpful.
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“This meeting targeted new Directors such as myself as well as new coordinators from various Caritas organizations in Africa and in the Middle East,” she said, and added, “As a new regional coordinator, I have learned a lot and I hope I can work together with our members as we get assessed as a region.”
She said that participants in the training had been taken through a process of the history of the CI MS, how to assess themselves internally, and how to make decisions based on how they score in the assessments.
“We have learnt that evidence of compliance to each particular standard must be produced. For instance, most Caritas organizations are under the Episcopal Conferences. Such organizations must demonstrate that Bishops recognize them,” Ms. Esipila said.
Following the November 20-23 workshop, participants are expected to initiate self-assessment exercises in their organizations.
They will then share their results with CI where they will be assessed externally, Annamária, the Program Manager of CI MS said, and added, “We hope that through this exercise, we’ll continue to reduce the number of organizations that are not already compliant with our international standards.”
Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.
