By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News
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| A section of SIGNIS Africa Team Lead by the SIGNIS Africa Interim Chairman Fr. Walter Ihejirika |
The majority of African delegates missed out on the just concluded SIGNIS World Congress due to Visa issues. From AMECEA Countries Delegates from Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi and Tanzania who had applied to attend the congress painfully missed out because they could not get Visa to Canada.
Among the people who missed out due to Visa complications included the immediate former SIGNIS Africa President Fr. Ernest Kouacou from Cameroonand immediate former AMECEA SIGNIS Delegate Fr. Andrew Kaufa from Malawi.
According to the newly elected President of SIGNIS Africa Fr. Walter Ihejirika, many African delegates expressed interest to attend the congress but unfortunately they couldn’t travel; for instance, from Nigeria, 3o people had registered to attend the congress but unfortunately only eight people managed to get the visas to Canada.
“My appeal to anyone who wishes to attend the congress is to start the process early enough so that they have enough time to process the travel documents. At the same time, I appeal to future host countries to make prior arrangements that would ease the visa issues for delegates willing to attend.” Fr. Walter told AMECEA Online News.
Fr. Walter explained that during the 2014 World Congress in Rome, The Vatican Secretariat of State intervened making it easy for the delegates who had expressed interest to attend. He cited the Rome Congress as one of the best attended.
SIGNIS World Congress is held after four years. The first Congress was held in Rome in 2001. This was followed by Lyon in 2005 and Chiang Mai in 2009. The next World Congress was scheduled for Lebanon in 2013 but due to security issues, it was later on convened in Rome in 2014.
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