In its efforts to promote the work of Evangelization through ICT and new media technology, the Social Communications Department of AMECEA held a training workshop for ICT Personnel from AMECEA member conferences as one of the capacity building strategies of the department.
The workshop was a combination of basic training on WordPress and Website development as well as a meeting forum for national ICT to chat way forward for future collaborations through networking among AMECEA Member Countries.
Head of Social Communications Department of AMECEA Rev. Fr. Chrisantus Ndaga who addressed the participants at the beginning of the four-day workshop on Tuesday 5th April emphasized on the need for the Church’s presence online by embracing the new media technology.
“This training will greatly facilitate information sharing to reach as many people especially young people who are always in social media networks,” said Fr. Ndaga.
He explained that AMECEA decided to conduct the training on information technology and communication (ICT) for communication experts to help broaden their spectra and build their capacity so that they can inform, educate and evangelize communities. He added that there are many things the Church is doing which are very important to the society but they are known by the society.
“Through such trainings, you will help to reduce the cost of buying or paying others to prepare your websites and blogs because you will be in positions to perform such tasks by yourselves,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the first AMECEA Secretary of Social Communications Department Rev. Fr. Joseph Healey, MM, who was present at the beginning of the training appealed to the participants to ensure that all communication offices in the conferences make ICT a priority.
“It is important that you implement in your respective conferences what you are going to learn during this workshop so that the work of evangelization can be more promoted,” said Fr. Healey whose sentiments were echoed by the Training facilitator Mr. Peter Kyalo from University of Nairobi who told the participants that ICT is about putting into practice what one has learnt, failure of which leads to forgetfulness of the concepts.
Speaking after the training, the participants were grateful for the initiative AMECEA is taking as they wished that the same knowledge could trickle down to conference level where many dioceses could benefit from it. Responding to the call of participants, Fr Ndaga said that he is taking it as a challenge in view of looking for a solution all together.
The workshop was attended by participants from Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Malawi and Zambia.
By Bernard James, TEC National Communications Coordinator and Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News Reporter
Previous Post
Next Post