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| Group Photo of Members of the Association of Visually Impaired Catholic Christians (AVICC) in Malawi |
The Association of Visually Impaired Catholic Christians (AVICC) in Malawi says it plans to establish an office that will stock most of the stationery required by the visually challenged persons in order to boost their participation in the church.
The newly elected chairperson of the association, Samson Chima disclosed this recently at the association’s general meeting held at St. John guest house in the eastern region district of Mangochi. Chima said AVICC members have the capacity to contribute to the church but the only drawback is lack of a formal establishment where they can access enough education, information and communication materials in the form of Brail.
“Our members have capacity and willingness to contribute to the church in various activities but the only challenge is lack of access to Brail equipment and materials for them to serve as any other Christian for the development of the church,” Chima said.
He cited a number of areas such as scripture reading, provision of ideas and coordination of projects as some of the areas AVICC members wish to participate. He said widening the accessibility to information and communication materials to the Catholic visually impaired persons could assist them stick to their faith, saying most of the AVICC members have been joining other Christian faiths due to lack of enough information on the Catholic teachings and values.
Speaking on behalf of the episcopal conference of Malawi ECM, Rev. Father Henry Chinkanda who is also the chaplain of the Malawi Catholic members of parliament said the Catholic Church in Malawi is pleased to have this association. He said before its inception in 2013, it was difficult for the Church to assist its members because of the absence of proper channels to reach out to them.
“Let me assure you that our bishops are with you in this group. We heard your idea to form an association some time back and today we are pleased to note that it has been materialised. This will make it easy for the church to reach out to you”, said Father Chinkanda.
AVICC has representatives from all the eight Catholic dioceses in Malawi and holds a general assembly after three years with impromptu assembly whenever necessary.
Source: Francis Polinyu Banda, Radio Maria Malawi