General Secretaries of various religious organisations were on Friday oriented on the NGO (Amendment) Act and also given an opportunity to give input on the regulations being developed by NGORA to operationalize the Act.
The meeting which took place at Chikho Hotel in Mponela was opened by the Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Patricia Kaliati. In her remarks, Kaliati stressed on the important role that religious leaders play not only on spiritual matters, but in the development of the country. She said most religious institutions do charity work through NGOs, hence the need to orient them on the law.
“Most religious bodies do charity work in form of NGOs and it is very important that as Secretary Generals you get ahead of everyone in terms of understanding the NGO Law and its expectations,” said Kaliati.
Presidential Advisor on Religious Affairs Reverend Brian Kamwendo thanked NGORA for organizing the orientation session, adding that he was appreciative of the way the discussions were held during the meeting.
“I want to thank NGORA for organizing this meeting. The level of discussion has been very cordial, and the faith leaders were able to ask pertinent questions and NGORA was flexible enough to provide responses even to the toughest ones,” he said.
The NGO Act was Amended in 2022. Currently NGORA is in the processing of consulting various stakeholders to get input on regulations to operationalize the Act.