Small Christian Communities Promote Child Protection in the Neighborhood During 2018 Kenya Lenten Campaign

The annual Kenya Lenten Campaign is one of the best initiatives of the Catholic Church. The 2018 booklet states:

Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, Reconciliation for Peaceful Co-Existence and

National Integration: Justice for All (Mapatanisho ili Kuishi Pamoja kwa Amani kwa Taifa Lenye Usawa kwa Wote), Kenya Lenten Campaign, 2018, Nairobi: Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, 2018. KCCB Website, retrieved on 1 March, 2018,

English: http://www.kccb.or.ke/home/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/lenten-campaing-english-16-1-181.pdf

Swahili: http://www.kccb.or.ke/home/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/lenten-campaing-kiswahili-16-1-18.pdf

The 2018 weekly topics are:

First week – Good governance.

Second week – Reconciliation.

Third week – Youth and Development.

Fourth week – Security.

Fifth week –  Child Protection (covering different kinds of child abuse including physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse). NOTE: This week was used in our SCCs Course at Tangaza University College in February, 2018.

On our Small Christian Community (SCCs) Facebook Page

(https://www.facebook.com/www.smallchristiancommunities.org) we posted the following question for SCC members living in Kenya:

How attentive/focused are you? The purple 2018 Kenya Lenten Campaign Booklet has been distributed throughout the country. The cover and contents of the booklet are printed in the February, 2018 issue of the Catholic Mirror. Can you remember the drawing on the cover???

One comment was that the drawing presents three components of peace: a dove with an olive branch in its mouth; an African hand holding a smartphone that says “Peace, Peace” four times; and SCC members sitting together in a circle and discussing reconciliation.

The booklet uses the “See” and “Judge” and “Act” process or methodology. Week Five on “Child Protection” begins with a two-part drawing on the good and bad aspects of raising and protecting children.

For women in SCCs who are not used to reading and sharing/reflecting in public, commenting on and discussing the two parts of the drawing is easier and get them immediately involved. Under “Act: Reflection questions” SCCs members reflect on the question: What is the role of the

1. Catholic Church.

2. My Small Christian Community.

3. My family.

4. Me as an individual.

in promoting Child Protection?

The Swahili is: “Kanisa Katoliki, Jumuiya Ndogo Ndogo yangu, familia yangu na mimi binafsi tuna jukumu gani katika kutunza watoto?”

Most of the Small Christian Communities in Eastern Africa are neighborhood, parish-based SCCs. Child protection begins in the neighborhood with the family and the SCC.

SCCs members also use the prayer about the process for the beatification of the Servant of God Cardinal Maurice Michael Otunga in English and Swahili on page three of the 2018 Kenyan Lenten Campaign Booklet.

Rev. Joseph G. Healey, MM
Maryknoll Society
P.O. Box 43058
00100 Nairobi, Kenya

0723-362-993 (Safaricom, Kenya)

973-216-4997 (AT&T, USA)

Email: JGHealey@aol.com

Skype: joseph-healey

NOTE: This article is published in Issue No. 8 (2018) of Mouth Piece, the Christ the King Major Seminary magazine in Nyeri, Kenya.

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