LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The Centre for Social Concern (CFSC)–a social arm of the Roman Catholic Church in Malawi–launched its fifth strategic plan which will enable the centre to work with more stakeholders in improving communities’ lives through its three pillars, namely; Social Conditions-Basic Needs Basket (BNB), Economic Justice and Inter-religious Dialogue.

The new strategic plan, covering the period 2020-2024, was launched Thursday, June 18, 2020 at CFSC headquarters in the Capital Lilongwe.

CFSC Director, Father James Ngahy, described the plan as special among the strategic plans the centre has had since its establishment in 2002.

“Our previous strategies focused much on us as an organization with our own groups, enabling us to implement interventions at that level and grow as such.

“However, we now want to reach out to more stakeholders–like-minded people–with whom we want to create partnerships to work together in order to achieve greater things for our communities,” said Ngahy.

The CFSC Director added that the new strategic plan would also enable the centre to work with more innovation especially under the pillar of BNB to ensure that people are living happily.

In this regard, Ngahy disclosed that the centre will, among other things, increase visits to where people live in order to see how those people live.

He said in doing so, CFSC will be able to see the realistic possibilities of people so that they do not suffer in future.

“We are not happy to see people eat maize husks. People must have good and nutritious food. We will be on the ground and presenting real situations to government in order to influence it to take action to help people,” Ngahy said.

In his remarks, founder and outgoing Director of CFSC, Father Jos Kuppens, was delighted that the organization has grown and achieved alot of successes through its three pillars.

“The past 18 years have been a learning process to CFSC. This has enabled CFSC to perform and become a known and accepted centre that contributes to the development of Malawi,” said Kuppens.

According to Kuppens, CFSC, in its existence, has also tackled issues of debt, taxation, minimum wage and tried to accutely minimize religious tensions in the country through dialogue.