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EASO publishes a COI report: Venezuela Country Focus

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European Asylum Support Office
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EASO publishes a COI report: Venezuela Country Focus

On 20 August 2020, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) published a Country of Origin Information (COI) report titled ‘Venezuela Country Focus’.

This COI report is a joint initiative of EASO and the Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees (IGC)1.

The report addresses the main topics and questions raised by international protection authorities, decision-makers, and COI researchers. It covers recent developments in the economy, political and security situation, and the humanitarian situation. The report also discusses the most recurring targeted profiles by the government and its security forces. It describes activities of armed pro-government civilian groups (colectivos), including targeted profiles, modus operandi, relation with the government and security forces, and state response for victims of colectivos. Final chapters describe identity and courts documents, entry and exit procedures, and the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans (LGBT) persons.

Some findings of the report include:

  • The mass emigration of Venezuelans constitutes one of the largest in recent Latin American history. While the number of Syrians who left their country reached 6.5 million in seven years (2011-2017), the number of Venezuelans who left their country reached 4 million in four years (2015-June 2019).
  • Venezuela has one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America, despite a decrease in 2019. Armed groups, both domestic and foreign, operate in Venezuela, with distinct objectives, modus operandi, political loyalties and relations with the state. 
  • Colectivos exert political and social control in neighbourhoods where they operate, and have become instrumental in the use of coercive control over protests through the use of violence and often in coordination with security forces.
  • The nature of protests changed in the first months of 2019, with more targeted demonstrations emerging to protest the deterioration of living standards and the humanitarian situation. Security forces allegedly subjected persons who participated in protests to ‘serious abuse and ill-treatment’ while in detention in order to punish them, force confessions, or incriminating others.
  • Authorities allegedly engaged in forced disappearances, including for political reasons, to impede the defence of the person while the detention is carried out. Security forces have also allegedly been involved in extrajudicial executions. 
  • Venezuela has established a complex system to eavesdrop, harass, and digitally and physically monitor the population, including through the CLAP food boxes and the Homeland Card (Carnet de la Patria). Social control has intensified during the pandemic.
  • A systematic and widespread policy of repression in Venezuela for those who are critical of the government was identified by sources. The government and security forces target journalists to silence on what is occurring in the country. Human rights advocates and members of civil society organisations are prosecuted under both the criminal justice system and the military penal jurisdiction, as an ‘exemplary punishment’ to block the work of other human rights organisations. The ‘Law Against Hate’ has been one of the legal instruments used for these prosecutions.

The report was drafted by an independent COI expert, James Restrepo, in accordance with the EASO COI Report Methodology. The report draws on information from 14 oral sources interviewed for this report, apart from a large variety of publicly available sources. It was reviewed by experts from: Canada – Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) of Canada, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC); Norway -Norwegian Country of Origin Information Centre, Landinfo; Switzerland – State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), Division Analysis (Länderanalyse SEM), and United States – Refugee Asylum and International Operations (RAIO), US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Venezuelan applications for international protection in the EU+ increased considerably since early 2019 and peaked between November 2019 and February 2020. In 2019, Venezuelans launched twice as many applications, over 45 000, as in 2018. In the first quarter of 2020, the number remained similar to the last quarter of 2019 (over 13 000) but already in late March applications began to decrease in the context of restrictive measures to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Spain has remained the main destination country: in the period January 2019 – March 2020 about nine in 10 applications in the EU+ were lodged in Spain.

The report can be downloaded from the EASO COI portal.

[1] IGC participating states are: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.

Syria: Statement by the Spokesperson on the third meeting of the Constitutional Committee

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European External Action Service
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Syria: Statement by the Spokesperson on the third meeting of the Constitutional Committee

The first meeting since the outbreak of COVID-19 of the small group of the Constitutional Committee, held under the auspices of UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen in Geneva, is positive news.

The European Union encourages all the parties to seriously engage in good faith on the substance in order to pursue concrete results.

The Constitutional Committee is a door opener for creating the conditions for a political solution to the Syria conflict, although it is not in itself a political solution. Constructive diplomacy by all international stakeholders on all aspects of UN Security Council Resolution 2254 is needed to reach a sustainable political solution.

The European Union commends the work and continues to support UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen in his tireless efforts to pursue a political solution in Syria.

 

Mexico’s indigenous populations bearing brunt of Covid-19 pandemic – Vatican News

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officialinstitutions
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Mexico's indigenous populations bearing brunt of Covid-19 pandemic - Vatican News

By James Blears

In Mexico, where the poor have very limited and sporadic access to health services and hospital, up to fifty percent of those tested are showing symptoms of Covid-19.

The World Heath Organization says this shows an error of strategy with the pandemic. The WHO insists that there’s appreciably more Covid cases than meet the eye.

Its Emergency Program Executive Director, Mike Ryan, stresses: “Most certainly the scale of the testing remains limited with just three tests per one hundred thousand people.”

The WHO is calling for comprehensive testing as a paramount priority in order to prevent new outbreaks.

The current situation shows mismanagement in the treatment and restriction of the pandemic.

Heavy impact on indigenous groups

Ryan also points out that the pandemic is having a different and significant impact on indigenous enclaves in Mexico.

“There are a large number of people from indigenous communities reporting Covid 19,” he says.

In addition to this, many of these don’t believe the illness is real and there have been a number of violent demonstrations.

Mexican Health Authorities report there are 544,734 infections nationwide, 376,409 recoveries, and 59,610 deaths but candidly acknowledge this is significantly less than the real total.

The pandemic has hit Mexico all the harder, due to the high incidence of serious health conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and heart conditons.

The WHO says the introduction of a vaccine will not provide a total panacea. It’s also being estimated that fifteen million jobs will be lost.

Vatican Museum: Beauty that Unites! 63

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Vatican News
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Vatican Museum: Beauty that Unites! 63

Cenni di Francesco, The meal in the house of the Pharisee, Portion of a predella with Stories of Mary Magdalene, Vatican Pinacoteca, © Musei Vaticani

Faith opens us to knowing and welcoming
the real identity of Jesus, His newness and oneness,
His word, as a source of life,
in order to live a personal relationship with Him.
Knowledge of the faith grows,
it grows with the desire to find the way and
in the end it is a gift of God who does not reveal Himself
to us as an abstract thing without a face or a name,
because faith responds to a Person
who wants to enter into a relationship
of deep love with us and to involve our whole life.

For this reason our heart must undergo
the experience of conversion every day,
every day it must see us changing from people
withdrawn into themselves to people
who are open to God’s action, spiritual people (cf. 1 Cor 2:13-14),
who let themselves be called into question
by the Lord’s word and open their life to his Love.

(Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus, 14 August 2011)

Under the direction of Paolo Ondarza
#BeautyThatUnites
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Facebook: @vaticannews

Korean reconciliation process led by churches links ‘history and memory’

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officialinstitutions
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Korean reconciliation process led by churches links 'history and memory'
(Photo: Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Koreak, 2020.)Peace convocation and march at the DMZ between the North and South Korea.

The war that erupted on the Korean Peninsula 70 years ago to divide Korea has yet to end, so more prayers and discussion are needed to raise awareness for the path to reconciliation and peaceful coexistence in the divided nation, churches believe.

The relations between the nations that were involved in that war and are sometime engaged in trying to resolve the impasse that exists, ebb and flow with some positive-looking signs emerging this week.

South Korea said Aug. 22 it held talks with China’s top diplomat over trade, denuclearization and the coronavirus response, in the first visit by a high-level Beijing official since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted late last year, Reuters news agency reported.

Yang Jiechi, a member of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo, met with South Korea’s new national security adviser, Suh Hoon, in the southern port city of Busan, the South Korean government said.

The talks came after the COVID-19 pandemic had undercut bilateral exchanges and stalled denuclearization negotiations involving North Korea.

On Aug. 14, the World Council of Churches had published The Light of Peace: Churches in Solidarity with the Korean Peninsula, a collection of resources that member churches can use to recognize 70 years of unresolved conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

It notes that, “The division of Korea was followed by the Korean War. Some of the soldiers who served are still alive.”

“History, memory, and narrative are all interconnected with distinctive dimensions, involving a context-bound hermeneutical journey of the processes and events that have occurred for a people over an extended period,” said Rev. Hong-Jung Lee, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Korea.

RECONCILIATION AND PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE

“As peacemakers, we remember and interpret the period as a period of enhancing the people’s capacity for healing, reconciliation, and peaceful coexistence.”

In the book’s preface, Rev. Sang Chang, WCC Asia president, reflects that it is time for the Korean Peninsula to embrace the life of reconciliation and unification.

“This book traces the 70 years of modern Korean history, offering historical and geopolitical background on the division of Korea,” writes Chang.

She says this includes, “the spiritual and theological meanings of the global ecumenical initiatives for the peace and reunification on the Korean Peninsula.”

“Each chapter will foster an awareness of the pain and suffering caused by the 70 years of Korean War, enlivened by personal stories, interviews, and prayers, beginning with a spiritual reflection that serves as a theological introduction to the chapter.”

The Korean War was fought from 1950 to 1953, but fighting ceased only with an armistice, and a peace treaty is yet to be signed.

At least three million people are thought to have died in the fighting and families were wrenched apart by the division of the country.

Lee asked for continued prayers to arrive at a final peaceful settlement on the Korean Peninsula.

“We are trying to develop a people’s hermeneutics of peace so that we may testify God’s sovereignty of history: we confess that God will recreate a healed and reconciled Korean Peninsula with the fullness of life for all.”

PRACTICAL STEPS TO REMOVE THREAT

In the introduction, Rev. Ioan Sauca, WCC interim general secretary, urges Christians to take bold new steps for peace.

“It is time to find ways of taking real practical steps toward removing the permanent threat of war, toward peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula, and ultimately toward reunification of the long-divided Korean people,” he writes.

The book notes, “People in the North and South have become antagonistic strangers toward each other, deeply distorted by a Cold War consciousness and culture.

“As result the Korean Peninsula has now been sunk into the quagmire of the global military industrial complex of mass destruction on an apocalyptic scale.”

South African church leader Rev. Frank Chikane, moderator of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, says in the book, “It is important to recognize that places like the Korean Peninsula are victims of history, of the geopolitics of the world and different interests that have nothing to do with the interests of Koreans both in the North and South.

“If the global players continue to pursue their interests at the expense of the Koreans in the peninsula, we must support the Koreans to agree on their own peace agreement, ending the war between them,” he said.

Following an ecumenical consultation initiated by the WCC in Tozanso, Japan, in 1984, the ecumenical movement has played an important role through prayer, cooperation for reconciliation, dialogue, and peaceful reunification.

From March 1 to Aug. 15, 2020, the WCC, together with the National Council of Churches in Korea, has observed a Global Prayer Campaign, “We Pray, Peace Now, End the War.”

As part of the campaign, the WCC has been sharing prayers and stories commemorating 70 years since the start of the Korean War, inviting churches worldwide to join in prayers for Korea.

The Light of Peace will be translated it into Korean by the National Council of Churches in Korea.

The Irish Hindu Community celebrates its Grand Opening

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Newsdesk
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There are, estimated, 25,000 Hindus who live in Ireland, according to the director of the Vedic Hindu Cultural Centre

The Irish Times has reported today that Ireland’s first official Hindu Temple has formally opened its doors this Saturday in Walkinstown after two decades of raising funds and planning by the Irish Hindu community.

The new temple, which is marking, according to The Irish Times, its opening by holding a number of small events over the weekend with limited numbers to keep in line with Covid-19 restrictions, and expects thousands of Hindus from all around Ireland to pass through its doors over the coming months.

While the centre will primarily serve as a place of worship for Hindus, it will also offer meditation and yoga classes, language classes, music and dance workshops and be available for school visits and youth activities for the general public, Sudhansh Verma, director of the Vedic Hindu Cultural Centre of Ireland told The Irish Times.

“The community has been waiting for this for a long time so everyone is very excited. Finally we’ll have a place to embrace our culture, we miss that link here. We expect between 8-10,000 people will have visited by the end of the year but for now we have to keep following restrictions on numbers.”

Mr Verma, who has lead the campaign to find a permanent home for a Hindu temple in Ireland for nearly two decades, says the community has been relying on temporary locations to offer space for worship up until now and described the opening as “a historic moment”.

“Before this we were renting places and moving around all the time. We used community centres, school halls, GAA centres but now finally the hunt is over.

“I remember doing my first prayer session in Clontarf castle in 2001 and we had about 200 people. Back then I could count on my fingers how many people from India and Nepal lived here. But the community has grown a lot.

While the 2016 census recorded just over 14,300 Hindus living in Ireland, Mr Verma says the actual figure, when taking into account the number of students, nurses tech workers who have moved here in recent years, is much closer to 25,000 people.

Asked if the Hindu community has experienced any racism or rejection in this country, Mr Verma told The Irish Times that he’s always found Ireland to be “generous and kind”. He underlined that the new centre at the Sunbury Industrial Estate in Walkinstown would be open to people of “all faiths and religions”.

“We as a religion do not believe in fundamentalism; we believe we are all a family and can have different manifestations of God. We want people to live together peacefully and amicably, that is the main objective. This will not only be a spiritual centre but a community centre.”

He added that he hoped the centre’s kitchen could be used to provide food to homeless people working in partnership with local charities. Teenagers studying religion at Leaving Cert level will be able to attend classes on Hinduism at the temple, he said.

While the centre is open to the public, no walk-in visitors will be allowed while Covid-19 restrictions remain in place and access to the site is only available through pre-booking via the Vedic Hindu Cultural Centre.

You can find more information, visit www.hindu.ie

Borrell: Urge Libyan parties, to translate principles into concrete actions

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News desk
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Declaration by the High Representative Josep Borrell on behalf of European Union on the political announcements by the Libyan Presidency Council and the Libyan House of Representatives

Borrell: Urge Libyan parties, to translate principles into concrete actions

Libya – Declaration by the High Representative Josep Borrell on behalf of European Union on the political announcements by the Libyan Presidency Council and the Libyan House of Representatives

The European Union warmly welcomes the announcements issued on August 21, 2020 by the President of the Presidency Council Fayez Al-Serraj and Speaker of the House of Representatives Aguila Saleh. This is a constructive first step forward, which demonstrates the determination of the Libyan leaders to overcome the current stalemate and creates a new hope for a common ground towards a peaceful political solution to the longstanding Libyan crisis and the termination of all foreign interference throughout the country.

We fully support the agreement around the principles to immediately cease all military activities across Libya, requiring the departure of all foreign fighters and mercenaries present in Libya, and resume the negotiating process in the framework of the UN-led Berlin process.

We now urge all the Libyan parties, and all those supporting them in any form, to translate these principles into concrete actions on the ground leading to a permanent ceasefire, as part of the discussions within the 5+5 joint military committee and to relaunch the political process.

We took note of the announcements regarding the lifting of the blockade on oil infrastructure. We now call for these announcements to be followed by concrete developments in terms of a full resumption at full capacity throughout the country in the interest of all the Libyan people, along with the implementation of economic reforms with a view to agreeing on a fair and transparent distribution mechanism for oil revenues and to enhancing the governance of Libyan economic and financial institutions.

The European Union reiterates its full support to the UN and the Libyans in implementing these principles. We reaffirm our commitment to the Libyan people in their efforts to establish a sovereign, united, stable and prosperous country.

Nigeria: 40-days of prayer starts 22 August up to the eve of Independence Day – Vatican News

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officialinstitutions
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Nigeria: 40-days of prayer starts 22 August up to the eve of Independence Day - Vatican News

Paul Samasumo – Vatican City

“The killings in Nigerian have been going on now for a long time. They are very worrisome, and the Bishops of Nigeria have declared a forty-day prayer period which will end on the last day of September. Then a day of common prayers on the 1 October, which is also the nation’s Independence Day,” explained Fr. Patrick Alumuku, Director of communications at the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja in an interview with Andrea De Angelis of Vatican News. He is also the Director of Nigerian Catholic -CTV.

Pray for God to save Nigeria

During the period of prayer, Nigerian Bishops have called upon all Catholics to pray, daily, one Our Father, three Hail Marys, as well as one Glory Be to the Father. On 1 October (Nigeria’s Independence Day), the faithful are to pray the five decades of the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary beads “for God to save Nigeria.”

Nigerians frustrated at Government’s inability to contain the insecurity

The forty-day prayer period comes against a background of persistent terrorist attacks mostly carried out by Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen as well as other criminal gangs. The attacks are especially rampant in northern Nigeria. Christians are often the victims. However, the violence is also indiscriminate and is calculated at causing as much mayhem and misery as possible. Thousands of innocent citizens are now Internally Displaced in Nigeria or have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. Ordinary Nigerians in villages and public places are haunted by lingering constant insecurity in the face of killings, bombings, conscriptions and the brazen abductions of women and girls.

Fr. Alumuku, told Vatican News that Nigerians, especially Christians, are tired and frustrated that notwithstanding many promises, authorities have failed to contain the widespread insecurity.

“The killings in Nigeria have gone on for a long time without the intervention of the Government. Christians are frustrated and exasperated by this situation and have even called for a change of leadership in the security agencies,” said Fr. Alumuku.

He added that there is a feeling that some elements in the Nigerian Government could be aiding terrorists judging by the Government’s inertia in handling the country’s security situation.

Pope Francis’s prayers comfort and sustain the faith of Nigerians

Fr. Alumuku continues, “Pope Francis’s prayer and the appeal for peace in Nigeria made on the Feast of Assumption (last week); also the Nigerian Bishops’ call for forty days of prayer are the things sustaining the Christian faith of the people of Nigeria,” he emphasised.

Fr. Alumuku further appealed to the international community to join in pressuring the Government of Nigeria to “ensure that Christians in Nigeria (can also) live in peace.”

On 15 August, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pope Francis prayed for northern Nigeria after the Angelus Prayer in the Saint Peter’s Square.

“Today I would like to pray in particular for the population of the northern region of Nigeria, victims of violence and terrorist attacks,” prayed Pope Francis.

Listen to our interview with Fr Patrick Alumuku

Bishop Mason: Bottom line on dementia is ‘lens of love’ – Vatican News

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officialinstitutions
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Bishop Mason: Bottom line on dementia is ‘lens of love’ - Vatican News

By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp

The Right Reverend Paul Mason is the Military Bishop for England and Wales. He is also the Lead Bishop for Health and Social Care. An article he wrote appeared on Wednesday in the online edition of The Tablet. It was subsequently posted on the Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales website on Thursday.

Dementia patients most vulnerable

Bishop Mason touches on a critical aspect of care for the elderly and other persons in assisted living or nursing facilities who suffer from dementia and other forms of diseases that affect the mind. “People suffering with dementia are some of the most vulnerable in our society,” the Bishop states. What they deserve, he says, is “all the love we can muster.”

And yet, with Covid-19 restrictions locking out loved ones, the one thing they need is beyond their grasp. Their needs “can be neglected”, the Bishop continues, at times “assumptions made about what is best for them” and their loved ones “who wish to visit them.”

Need for love ones

Bishop Mason reminds us that just because a person’s ability to reason or remember may be impaired, their ability to feel may not be. Rather, “meaningful human interactions can make a real difference” in how the particular disease progresses.

Care staff in some facilities have left their own families for “weeks or even months”, Bishop Mason recounts, owing to the Covid-19 restrictions. Even though they have demonstrated such “great sacrifice” and some also “tragically lost their lives as a result of Covid-19,” professional care is not enough.

There is an irreplaceable role that can only be filled by the patients’ loved ones: sitting “with a resident for long periods, talking or reading to them, playing them music, holding their hand.” Lack of such loving interaction can hasten either the deterioration of the disease or even death, Bishop Mason notes.

Love vs broken heart

The disconnection is experienced both by the loved ones, as well as by the resident receiving care, Bishop Mason writes. He also cites Dr Donald Macaskill, CEO of Scottish Care, who has shared experiences of dementia patients in care homes “dying of a broken heart due to a lack of contact with their loved ones.”

Bishop Mason leaves us with the question regarding the fine line between safety, protecting ourselves and others, and the “purpose of being alive.” And he proposes that the answer be love when the alternative is dying of a broken heart.

MALAWI: Archbishop Msusa excited with progress of Radio Project – Vatican News

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officialinstitutions
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MALAWI: Archbishop Msusa excited with progress of Radio Project - Vatican News

Esther Nyanja – Malawi

The Archbishop of Blantyre, in Malawi, has urged parishioners to own the Archdiocese’s upcoming Kuwala FM radio station and ensure its sustainability right from the onset.

Archbishop impressed with progress 

Archbishop Msusa was speaking, this week, during an interface meeting with Kuwala FM taskforce members at the Archbishop’s House when they presented a progress report of the radio project. Archbishop Msusa said it was inspiring that the Archdiocese has embarked on the ambitious project.

“I am impressed with the commitment of the taskforce team and the progress made so far. We can hope the radio station will hit the airwaves soon,” the Archbishop said.

Broadening channels of evangelization

He added that it is his wish that the radio would be sustainable without depending on him as Archbishop.

“Christians need to start embracing the idea of having a radio station in the Archdiocese. We can succeed if we work together on this project. It is not my radio station but ours. The success of this important project lies in the hands of all of us,” he said.

Archbishop Msusa said the main agenda of the radio station is to broaden channels of evangelization within the Archdiocese and beyond.

Describing the radio project as a landmark, Archbishop Msusa said he was grateful that what started as a mere dream “is now becoming a reality.”

He pledged full support to the project and urged parishioners to pray for the successful launch of the project.

Kuwala FM will be on air soon

Archdiocese of Blantyre Communications Coordinator, Father Frank Mwinganyama commended the Archbishop for the support he is rendering to the project, urging others to emulate the generous gesture of the Archbishop. He also assured the Archbishop that in the next three months, Kuwala FM would hit the airwaves.

“All preparations for studio refurbishment, equipment purchases and co-siting agreements are at an advanced stage”, Father Mwinganyama said.

He added that the radio station is expected to reach out to more than 2.5 million Christians in the Archdiocese of Blantyre and surrounding areas.

A growing Catholic media presence

The Church in Malawi already has Radio Alinafe of Lilongwe Archdiocese, Radio Tigabane of Mzuzu Diocese and Tuntufye FM of Karonga Diocese.

Other Catholic media houses in the country include Radio Maria Malawi,  Luntha Television and Montfort Media in the Diocese of Mangochi.

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