Harare, 23 April, 2022 / 5:30 pm (ACI Africa).
The report of a baseline pilot study in Zimbabwe’s Catholic Archdiocese of Harare indicates that many people in the Metropolitan See do not have enough knowledge to protect minors and other vulnerable people from abuses.
The report that has been written by a Child Safeguarding Officer with the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC) is part of the findings of the ongoing pilot project that seeks to set up a model to implement programs in all the eight Catholic Dioceses in Zimbabwe to protect children from abuses.
“From the baseline report, it became clear that many Catholics do not have sufficient knowledge about safeguarding minors and vulnerable adults,” Theresa Patience Sanyatwe said in the Thursday, April 21 report.
The Zimbabwean Child Safeguarding Officer said that the pilot project, which focused on the Archdiocese of Harare, will help them to identify some issues and lessons that they will use to make necessary amendments when they extend the study visits to other Dioceses in the Southern African country.
She said that the baseline study that focused on the Archdiocese of Harare sought to analyze the real situation on the ground involving child abuse and the safety of other vulnerable groups and examined the extent to which people know how to protect these groups.
