Anglican Church urges other churches to invest in childhood development

Malawi: The Anglican Church has urged churches to consider investing in early childhood development in order for the country to develop.

Bishop Alinafe Kalemba of the Southern Malawi Diocese of the Anglican Church said at the launch of the 2022 Provincial Children Teacher's Conference in Nkhotakota that building a corrupt-free nation begins at the grassroots, so churches must invest in early childhood development.

Bishop Kalemba said:"As a church, we see the grassroots as the foundation of the church and the foundation of the nation, so it is critical that we invest heavily in nurturing the young to become youthful citizens and good church members. If you look around today, you will notice a lot of moral decay because we have neglected the primary unit, which is the family. The family is where the children are raised, and if the children do not have proper nurturing aspects, they grow up into useless and harmful citizens of the nation, but when children in a home have been given good advice, have been natured well, and have grown spiritually, a lot of the problems we face today would not exist.”

As a church, we see the grassroots as the foundation of the church and the foundation of the nation, so it is critical that we invest heavily in nurturing the young to become youthful citizens and good church members, Kalemba said

Nkhotakota District Commissioner Ben Matengeni Tohno, who was also a guest of honour at the conference's opening, praised the initiative, saying that churches have an important role to play because God-fearing citizens can help build a good nation.

"This teaching in children will help them to grow in spirit, we believe that if we have prayerful people, they will be useful citizens and will be able to do much more for the country and the district. I'm appealing to other churches to emulate the same in order to help in building a good nation,” Tohno stated.

Mercy Kandulu, a Sunday school teacher, stated that the conference is crucial to them because it will allow them to learn from other countries Sunday school teachers.

A five-day conference in Nkhotakota has brought together Provincial Sunday school teachers from four countries: Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana.

International visitors will also visit other historical sites in the Nkhotakokota district, among other things.

The theme of the conference is "Train a child as an instrument and a teacher as a resource for church sustainability."