Solwezi, 30 August, 2023 / 9:30 pm (ACI Africa).
The care of children in faith-based structured institutions is not the “ideal” way of child upbringing, the Chairman of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences of Eastern Africa (AMECEA) has said.
Bishop Charles Kasonde who was delivering the keynote address at the conference of stakeholders of the Catholic Care for Children International (CCCI) in Lusaka, Zambia on Tuesday, August 29 said that the ideal place for raising children is the family.
“We continue to give the children institutionalized care not because it is ideal, but because of their circumstantial being,” Bishop Kasonde said on the first of the three-day event that is being held at the Kapingila House, Kabulonga in Lusaka.
The Local Ordinary of Zambia’s Solwezi Diocese added, “Here we are confronted with the truth that despite the success stories of institutionalized child care apostolate, we recognize that every child deserves to grow in a family environment.”
While the Catholic Church seeks to foster the family institution as the rightful place for the upbringing of children, Bishop Kasonde noted that “some children end up in Catholic institutions that are being run by the Dioceses, and Congregations mostly of the religious women.”