Session on Safeguarding of minors and vulnerable adults for Novices of the Missionaries of Africa in Arusha, Tanzania, 2025

Article 32 of the General Policy of the Society of the Missionaries of Africa on the Prevention of Abuse and the Protection of Minors and Persons in Situation of Vulnerability (13 May 2022) clearly emphasizes that:

“Candidates of the Society (‘seminarians’) are being inducted into the missionary way of life with its joys and boundaries. They are being tested on their commitment to the values of the Society. Therefore, the Membership Code of Conduct is for them too. Particular attention should be given throughout all phases of formation to ensure that safeguarding becomes an integral part of their formation.”

In this spirit, the formators at St. Mbaaga Novitiate in Arusha, Tanzania, organized a three-day safeguarding training for the new novices from 1^st to 3^rd October 2025. The session was facilitated by the Coordinator for Integrity in Ministry of the Society Lowrent Kamwaza, who guided the novices through the Society’s safeguarding policy and its practical implications for missionary our life today.

The session helped the novices reflect on the integrity in ministry within both the Church and the Society. They explored various forms of abuse that may arise in pastoral contexts and discussed ways to prevent and to respond to them. Drawing from their personal and pastoral experiences, the novices were invited to collaboratively develop their own Code of Conduct to guide their ministry in orphanages, secondary schools, and the two parishes in Arusha where they are sent for apostolate. In the presence of their formators, their novice master and the Coordinator for Integrity in Ministry, during Eucharistic celebration, each novice signed the Code of Conduct of the formation house, symbolizing a personal and collective commitment to integrity in ministry as an essential dimension of our missionary formation.

Safeguarding is our shared commitment.

By: Lowrent Kamwaza, M.Afr., (Coordinator for Integrity in Ministry)