By Luke Bisani
The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) in the Archdiocese of Lilongwe has eyed partnership with the Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA) on adult diversion implementation in Malawi.
Among others, the CCJP office seeks CUNIMA’s collaboration in research and publication of literature on adult diversion and capacity building in the implementation of adult diversion in the country.
Lilongwe Archdiocese CCJP Secretary Mr Noel Kondwani Mtonza said the Commission seeks to share literature that can support periodic reviews of CUNIMA programs in the faculty of social sciences to meet the demand of addressing adult diversion in Malawi.
“First and foremost, we want the social work interns that they provide us to become the social workers that Malawi needs since this is the factory that produces professionals. We want to share with the University the gaps that we have noted to be considered in their review of programs relating to adult diversion,” said Mtonza.
Mtonza added that the Commission wants joint support with CUNIMA in lobbying Government to pass a bill that guides social work in the country.
“We want to push together for the gazetting social workers. You know, we have graduates from the Catholic University of Malawi but they are not gazetted social workers, so they work informally. We are trying to find modalities, we are lobbyists, we are advocates and we want to see how best we can do this together” added Mtonza.
The Head of Department from the Faculty of Social Sciences at CUNIMA Loveness Imaan disclosed that the University is ready to work with the Commission in successful implementation of adult diversion in Malawi.
“Once we have completed the processes of this partnership, we are to work together on resources mobilization, publishing the literature they have gathered for national consumption but also train their community based social workers,” said Imaan.
Imaan added that the country is to benefit from this partnership as they also aim at helping in decongesting the country’s prisons.
For the past years, Malawi has been registering high numbers of inmates in the prisons national wide. The situation is worrying as inmates are being exposed to a hazardous environment where they are likely to get communicable diseases due to congestion.
Through a project that CCJP in the Archdiocese of Lilongwe has been doing for the past ten years, the Commission seeks to help in lowering the number of prisoners through community service sentences on petty cases.
The project depends on the social workers who play a critical role in advocating for community service sentences. Over the years, CUNIMA has been supporting the project by providing social work interns.