Catholic Diocese of Ndola  Director for Social Programmes and Projects Rev. Fr. Francis Mukosa had a meeting with members of the Justice and Peace Programme on Thursday 22 February 2018. Close to 50 participants attended the meeting. These were drawn from ten (10) deaneries of the Diocese, namely; Bwana Mkubwa, Chingola, Chililabombwe, Kitwe, Kalulushi, Nkana, Kamfinsa, Luanshya, Mufulira and Ndola. Each deanery was represented by six executive members.

The aim of the meeting was to share information with the coordinators, especially on the situation of dwindling donor funds. He mentioned that CAFOD, the partner who was funding the Justice and Peace Programme, has shifted from supporting governance and democracy to concentrate on other focus areas.

The Director appealed to coordinators to start looking for ways to generate funds locally to operate their community advocacy activities. However, he revealed that the Diocese would continue to look for partners who may sponsor the Justice and Peace Programme as the work of monitoring community activities which they performed was important.

During this meeting, deanery coordinators presented their reports to explain how each deanery was conducting its activities. A number of issues came out of the reports namely; that some parishioners were not ready to volunteer their services to CCJP. The teams are lacking funds to conduct their activities, members who have finished their research assignments not being commissioned on time, absence of identity cards and not having offices to operate from.

In terms of successes, the teams meet regularly and are able to identify issues in communities which they bring to the attention of relevant organizations and government departments.