YAMBIO (SOUTH SUDAN)
ACI Africa - Association for Catholic Information in Africa [Nouaceur, Morocco]
June 30, 2024
By Ginaba Lino Michael
On the annual celebration of the International Day of the African Child (DAC), which was belatedly marked in South Sudan on June 26, the Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in the country has emphasized the need to pay keen attention to the safeguarding of minors.
In his message for the event marked annually on June 16, Fr. Santo Gaba urged citizens to report all cases of suspected child abuse as a way of promoting the rights of children.
“The Church must see that children are safe because the children are the future of the Church,” Fr. Gaba said in his Wednesday, June 26 message.
He added, “The Catholic Church and the leaders in South Sudan should ensure that children’s dignity and their rights to a dignified life and bodily integrity (are) respected, nurtured and safeguarded.”
The member of the Clergy of South Sudan’s Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio (CDTY) recognized children as of paramount importance to the Church, and urged the people of God to be open to acquiring a deeper awareness of the danger of subjecting minors to abuses.
“There are numerous challenges facing children in the society more especially in South Sudan,” he said, highlighting “child recruitments, early marriages.”
According to the South Sudan Catholic Priest, “the most surprising” abuse against children in the world’s newest nation “is child compensation where the baby girl is given to the family when someone kills a person.”
There is a need to involve children in all activities and advocate for best practices in society that foster the rights of children, Fr. Gaba emphasized.
He went on to highlight some initiatives taken by PMS in South Sudan in child safeguarding initiatives, saying, “In our animation for the Missionary Holy Childhood, we always continue to create awareness and create the environment of prayer, the environment of spirituality so that the children may grow spiritually, mentally, and educationally.”
The Director of PMS in South Sudan added, “We are slowly trying to set this office of pontifical mission society for the Holy childhood and hoping slowly we shall be at the position of celebrating the Day of the African Child.”