On Saturday evening January 13th a very successful 3 day Justice Peace workshop was completed at Ngong, Kenya.  It was attended by 12 sisters in Temporary Profession, 4 Novices, together with Sr Teresa, Formator with the Temporary Professed and Sr Catherine the community leader in Ngong.   There were 3 Resource Person – Donatus Lili,  NGO Regional Designate for RIMOA, (center) Michael Owino Coordinator of the Mission Development Office East Central Africa (right) and myself.  It was an experience of team work and integration of justice peace with ministry against a backdrop of spirituality.

See the suggested Schedule for Nairobi – January 2018     Invariably too much was planned but what was accomplished was substantive and with some depth.  Having been warmly welcomed by the community in Ngong, Day 1 began with introductions and sharing by each participant of experiences and the meaning of justice peace in her life.  Samples of sharing included standing firm and fighting corruption by not signing on a document; helping girls to bring cases to court in order to claim their rights; being an advocate in the court for children; having the courage to point out a judge  who was corrupt; advocating and representing children rights  with parents; being observant in the Metatu ( public transport) and noticing a girl who was being trafficked and taking appropriate action.  Some comments and reflections noted that there is no peace without justice;  the necessity of peace and justice to self; justice begins at home with self, within the community, and with staff by implementing just procedures; justice peace cannot be separated from compassion, forgiveness and reconciliation; justice and peace necessitates an analysis of root causes, calls for risk taking and is a process, a journey; being an agent of justice peace in society, within ministries,  within families, and it starts with me; being in solidarity with others; reflecting the face of Jesus in all circumstances.

Session two shared on the GSIJP Office – the who and the what, outlining structures and the job description of the Justice Peace Contact.  Winifred outlined some of the recommendations from the  workshop in 2016 as many of the participants had attended that workshop.  There was a review of vision and mission and the Congregational Direction Statement. See Thursday January 11 2018 Session 1& 2

Session 3 and 4 was learning around the Sustainable Development Goals using the lyrics We-Love-the-SDGs-Study-Guide-v2 and youtube  Group work followed making the connections between the various goals and presenting finding linking goals with what is happening in ministries especially the centrality of SDG 5.  This included familizariation with the targets of SDG 5 – no discrimination, no violence, no harmful traditional practices, recognize unpaid care work, women’t leadership, and sexual and reproductive health  and rights.  Thursday Session 3 & 4 on SDG’s January 11

Day 2, session 5 and 6 focused on the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.  CEDAW is the bill of rights for Women.  Donatus shared on her experience of being in Geneva and presenting a CEDAW report on Fistula.   Donatus began with an overview of the human rights mechanisms and then focused on presenting the 30 articles of CEDAW Convention.  Some articles of particular interest to us are Article 1 which defines discrimination against women to cover all facets of human rights and fundamental freedoms.  Article 3: Women are fundamentally equal with men in all spheres life  and countries must take measures to uphold women’s equality in the political, social, economic, and cultural fields.  Article 6 is an important one for Good Shepherd as countries are urged to take steps to suppress the exploitation of prostitution and trafficking in women.  Article 7 is about women’s right to engage in political and public life with the right to vote, hold public office and participate in civil society. Article 9 has to do with nationality.  Women have equal rights with men to acquire, change, or retain their nationality and that of their children.   Article 10 addresses the right to education, article 11 the right to employment and article 12 the right to health.  Article 13 Women have  equal right to family benefits, financial credit and participation in recreational activities. Article 14 concerns rural women and article 15 addresses equality before the law.  Women have the right to enter contract, own property and choose three place of residence.  Article 16 Women have equal rights with men in matters related to marriage and family relations.   The following articles 17 – 24 are related to the Committee on CEDAW and reporting procedures followed by Articles 25 -30 on the Administration of the Convention.  

Winifred led Session 7 and 8 Introducing the United Nations and presenting in depth the Social Protection Floor Concept as outlined in ILO Recommendation 202.  See  Friday January 12 Session 7 & 8  (The Declaration on Human Rights was not presented – time factor).  The decision of the group was to hear about Social Protections Floors.

Session 9 was led by Michale Owino, Mission Development Office Director for Kenya.  Sr Rose Mary, the monitoring and evaluation office attended this session.

Michael presented in a very thorough and reflective way the Mission Development Office – team, broad objectives, focus areas, resource mobilization, co-ordination – communication, monitoring and evaluation, capacity building, workshops with project directors, centralization, mainstreaming justice peace, spirituality and Mission Partner development.

The final session was filled with appreciations for the opportunity to learn and share.  I appreciated the interest, and participation of each person. Karibu!

Asante Sana!