Agencies told to check churches’ database for services list

GOVERNMENT agencies and other development organisations seeking partnership with churches and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should consult with their recently launched databases for information on the type of services they provided in the country, a minister says.
Community Development, Youth and Religion Minister Soroi Eoe said this yesterday regarding measures his department had taken to ensure the government partnered right organisations for effective and efficient service delivery.
“My department had launched two separate databases last year, one for churches around April and the other for the NGOs in October, where they detail what type of services they provide and where in the country they are providing these services,” Eoe said.
He said the Government agencies and other development partners would not go wrong in choosing partners as all the information about churches and NGOs were detailed in the databases, which included information on their education, health and community development services.
Department Secretary Anna Solomon said they were putting a major focus on equipping the churches with capacity building through first establishing community development centres in all districts in the country – with centres in Bialla (West New Britain) and Imbonggu (Southern Highlands) already in existence– so that church programmes aimed at curbing gender-based violence, sorcery-related violence, vulnerable child care, elderly and disabled services would be administered or expended from there.