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| Newly Elected Superiors from ACWECA Rigion, During their training in Nairobi |
By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News
One of the core mandates of the Association of Consecrated Women in Eastern and Central Africa (ACWECA) is to help strengthen the leadership of women Religious congregations in order to ensure growth and self-sustainability of the congregations. Among the strategies the association has devised to ensure that this happens is the training of newly appointed religious superiors of the Congregations.
“Every year in November, we conduct capacity building for newly elected superiors from ACWECA Region. These include General Superiors, Provincial Superiors, and Regional Superiors. We train them on how to implement Chapter resolutions which is a mandate given to them as new leaders of the congregation,” says Sr. Eneless Chimbali, ACWECA Secretary General.
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| Sr. Eneless Chimbali, ACWECA Secretary General |
This year, 14 Superiors had applied to attend the session, unfortunately two did not make it due to unavoidable circumstances. According to Sr. Eneless, the number of participants depends on the number of congregations that have had their chapters and consequently election of new leaders.
“This is Module One where we focus on topics to do with planning and implementation of strategies. For this particular training, the Sisters have been here for five days and we have given them as much as possible,” Sr. Eneless said of the training which took place in Nairobi, from November 11 to 15.
The topics covered included implementation of Chapter resolutions; how to run a Congregation as an organization; issues of policy and delegation of duties; canonical issues; and governance where the focus was on what good leadership in an organization entails especially where one lacks executive team, and professional advisers.
According to Sr. Christine Wairimu Mwangi, from the Congregation of Sisters of Emmanuel from Diocese of Muranga who coordinates ACWECA Leadership Formation Program and under whose mandate the training directly falls, the program strengthens and promotes formation in the various Congregations as well as caters for the needs of Religious Women Superiors for instance drawing up plans for their Congregations.
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| Sr. Christine Wairimu Mawngi, Coordinator ACWECA Leadership Program |
“The trainings for the Superiors are usually conducted in three modules: Module One for the newly elected Superiors; Module Two for all Superiors whereby they are trained on how to administer the temporal good and how to promote sustainability in their Congregations; and finally Module Three which prepares the superiors on how to exit the office gracefully at the end of their term,” Sr. Christine said adding that Module Three empowers the superiors on how to hand over gracefully without breaking themselves, or becoming depressed but handing over and yet continue contributing positively towards the good of the Congregation as a member.
According to Sr. Christine, the main challenge for the program is funds owing to the fact that ACWECA currently has no income generating activities. Most of their programs depend on the goodwill of partners and this restricts the much they can do.
“The other challenge is that we have sisters from some of our member countries who may not be in a position to join us for the programs because of the challenges in their home countries like Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, and to some extent, Ethiopia. We miss them and feel for them because they miss these precious opportunities to mix with others from different Congregations and countries and share experiences.”
Reactions from Training Participants
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| Sr. Prisca Moraa, Kenya |
Sr. Prisca Moraa, Sisters of Mary Mother of God, Mombasa Archdiocese (Superior General)
Expectations: Looking at my age, I have been seeing Superiors of Congregations being above 50 years, therefore I was not expecting to be a leader. I was therefore expecting solidarity and encouragement from the others in my shoes.
Were the expectations met? Yes, and No: Concerning other important factors such governance and sustainability issues of the congregation, I have learnt a lot. My interaction with other sisters has also given me confidence and courage to take the mantle. However, I feel that more needs to be done, for instance to put emphasis on prayer life which is key to us as Religious.
Recommendations: Include a topic on spirituality. Sorry to say that as Religious in the contemporary world, sometimes we forget about our primary call. Therefore, there is a need to ask ourselves, ‘are we growing spiritually?’ We might be focusing on governance and sustainability of our Congregations but the most important thing that can make us successful is our spiritual life. Otherwise we risk become just like other corporate people.
Sr. Jacinta Godrey Kala, Salvatorian Sisters from Tanzania (Regional Superior)
Expectations: I expected to acquire skills that can help me as a leader in order to be effective. I
also expected to learn from other Congregations knowing that I was coming to meet Sisters from other congregations and other countries, with different backgrounds and cultures. This was very important to me because anything new I learn from them I can modify or adopt to bring positive changes in my congregation.
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| Sr. Jacinta Godfrey Kala, Tanzania |
Expectations met? Yes! The training was so helpful to me as it has enabled me to understand the meaning of leadership from the Christian perspective. Also I learnt that change should start with me if I want to effect any change in the Congregation.
Recommendation: I would recommend that in between sessions we have more time for interactive sharing to get more diverse opinions. The other thing I would recommend is recreation time especially after dinner. This is important to enable us refresh ourselves after a heavy day of learning. Finally, having met with different Sisters from different congregations and cultural backgrounds, sharing is very useful to me. Otherwise I appreciate what ACWECA team is doing. They have managed to identify the challenges that Congregations are facing today and they are focusing on helping us to address them.
Sr. Magdalene Chapisa, Congregation of the Handmaids of Our Lady of Mt. Camel from Mutare Diocese in Zimbabwe (Prioress General)
Expectations: My greatest expectation was to be empowered in order to do this job. You know
in Religious life sometimes you least expect to be the leader, and in most cases you don't know where to start. My predecessor actually encouraged me saying you need to go for this workshop as it will give you the courage you need to start off.
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| Sr. Magdalene Chapisa, Zimbabwe |
Expectations met? Yes! All expectations have been met, what is left for me now is doing the part by implementing whatever I have learnt from here.
Recommendations: Probably when a person is appointed into the office, the predecessors should continue with the work so that the newly elected person takes something like three-four months to prepare oneself. Secondly, because of cost implications, it may be economical to do the three modules all at once. Like now we are just doing one module, we still have two other modules and we need to get funds to come and do the second and the third module. Thirdly, it would be good if just soon after the appointment, we come and leave those who have been in the office to continue working until the newly appointed superiors are done with the training, so maybe three to four months to complete all the modules would be better.
Sr. Angelica Nzimenta, Grail Sisters, Mbarara Archdiocese, Uganda (Local Superior for Uganda)
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| Sr. Angelica Nzimenta, Uganda |
Expectations: My expectation was that whatever I was going to learn is to help in my responsibility as a leader and help me to improve in areas where I might not be perfect. I have received more than I expected because we have had a number of facilitators and this have helped us more. What I am taking home is that although we are religious, we are living in the world and the issues that are affecting us are also affecting the communities where we stay. So we need to have a bigger vision in order to respond to challenges affecting our communities. This will ensure that whatever we are doing is not in isolation but rather together with the Universal Church.
Recommendation: The program appeared very compact and sitting from eight to five with only short breaks for meals was somehow very tiring. I would also recommend that we improve on the interactive sessions.
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| Sr. Rosario Zakayombo, Zambia |
Sr. Rosaria Zakayombo, Religious Sisters of the Holy Spirit, Diocese of Monze, (General Superior)
Expectations: Acquiring skills and strategies on how I am going to manage the Congregation in the next six years was my biggest expectation.
Expectations met? Yes! Beyond my desires so to speak. It is now upon me to streamline what I have learnt and prioritize, saying I will start with this and that. Also I am hoping to share with my team some of the best practices I have learnt from the others I have interacted with during this period which I spent here.