New Member of Pontifical Commission for Protection of Minors to Focus on Abuse Prevention

Sr. Nyadombo added, “As a Commission member I'm not only bringing myself as an individual, but I'm bringing my experience of training; I'm also a writer for different policies to make sure that every country in the region has a policy at Conference level.”

“The Pope expects the Commission to know how to work with those people who have been affected; we are also asked to promote the mandate of the Church, to help make the Church a safe environment for all," said the Zimbabwean-born member of the Handmaids of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (HLMC).

Sr. Nyadombo who is also a Council Member of the Catholic University of Zimbabwe (CUZ) since 2014 and renown in the Southern African nation for policy development, education, and child safeguarding and protection as well as helping in the implementation processes of different programs further said that throughout her work with survivors of human trafficking as the coordinator of the religious network Talitha Kum in Zimbabwe, she “discovered that in education” one has to “plant seeds when a child is still very young so that they grow with a culture.”

“Like the Potter and the clay, you mold children when they're young; and based on my experience, my passion of educating children about safe environments when they're young, we started a program, which we call Safe schools’ program, a holistic approach to the five different aspects of human development, so that children learn to speak up,” said Sr. Nyadombo.

She continued, “We have also published a book called 'Positive Parenting', so that parents are also trained on how to handle children, how to use positive ways in dealing with discipline, and so the children also receive discipline in a different way, not in harsh corporal punishment, which is quite common in Africa.”

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“We are saying (to parents that) beating is also causing even more greater fear to their children, and their children won't perform well at school,” she told ACI Africa during the October 17 interview. 

The HLMC member whose academic background includes Theology, Canon Law, Business Administration, Counseling, International Relations and Leadership, and Social Communications further said, “We have also designed a manual for Church leaders to know how they should lead at schools and at Parishes.”

“We responded to the call for the Pope three years ago when he told us to open the doors for those in the peripheries and to reach out to the peripheral. We are thus reaching out to the children who are poor to continue with their education,” she added.

Sr. Nyadombo told ACI Africa that by providing education to poor children, they are addressing the issue of early marriages, especially the girl child, and child trafficking. 

"We seek to empower children, creating safe spaces for learning, that's what we're doing," she said during the October 17 interview.