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Ethiopia: Meki Vicariate Financial Workshop |
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Scritto da Fr. Jean-Marie Bilwala-Kabesa, Imc
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 Meki Apostolic Vicariate is one of the ten Vicariates of the Ethiopian Catholic Church. The Vicariate has structured Meki Catholic Secretariat office in 1995, following the decentralization of the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat office. The newly structured Meki Catholic Secretariat office developed a structure to manage the Pastoral and the Development activities of the Church. The working area of the Vicariate includes part of East Shoa, the whole of Arsi and Bale Zones of Oromiya National Regional State. The Vicariate area coverage is estimated to be 160,000sq. kms, with the population around 6 million people, out of which Catholics are about 23,000. Currently, the Vicariate is organized into 10 Parishes, 3 Centres, and 64 Outstations.
Once again, I would like to recall the Chinese statement which says: “Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a life time.”In front of God, we as missionaries have a very important mission which is to guide the people and to empower them. Several ways are applicable to make people empowered and responsible for their own lives, the one of the community and the entire Country. In Meki Vicariate, very few know about fundraising. We tremendously appreciate the initiative of our Confrere, Reverend Father John Monti, as the Meki Vicariate General Secretary, to organize a Workshop on finance in the Vicariate level. The Workshop was held from December 14th to December 18th, 2007 in Nazareth town. It was composed of the top social and development Coordinators of the Vicariate. They are Fr. John Monti, Imc; Frs. Gobezayo and Temesgen, both Diocesans of Meki; Srs. Beni and Florence, both from the Congregation of the Holy Spirit Sisters; and in the end, Fr. Jean-Marie Bilwala, Imc. Then, we were joined by other experts from different parishes and sectors. Some of the strategies underlined were the increment of the level of self-support in all the parishes; introducing better financial management and strategy…
We realize therefore that good practice in financial management will help everybody to make effective and efficient use of resources to achieve objectives and fulfil commitments to communities, Donors, government and other stakeholders. Besides, it will also help to gain the respect and confidence of funding agencies, partners and communities. Otherwise, assets will be put at risk of theft, fraud or abuse and the competence of managers may even be called into question. We hope that the Workshop is going to help all of us in the Vicariate level to be more responsible in financial management and to empower the people.
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