By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Children Ministry of the Twelve Apostles Catholic Church, Abuja has organized a 4-day Summer Camp Seminar for children of the parish and environs.
The non residential event with the theme: “Cyber Crime & Children Protection”,commenced on Monday with the celebration of Holy Mass, followed by talk shows and visitation to ID Camp. It was organised in collaboration with Province Legal Aid Initiative.
Speaking at the event, the Parish Priest of the Church, Rev. Fr Vincent-May Ogunsoro admonished children on the need to be disciplined as the scripture directed, since God chastises the those he loves.
The cleric also called on the children to imbibe the virtues of humility and selflessness as Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, so that they too can also be exalted by God just as he exalted the Blessed Virgin Mary because of her humility.
The Coordinator of the Children Ministry, Lady Theresa Obieke, in her welcome address, urged the children to consider themselves lucky as they are always blessed with children-friendly Priests who are ever willing to give their all for the development of the children ministry.
Lady Obieke disclosed that the program will highlight some emergent issues like; Cyber-crime and child protection, cultism and self-awareness, mental health and substance abuse, arts, crafts and skills, Charity visit to IDP children at Durumi, adding that the topics were all well thought out of emergent issues in the society and the world at large emanating from digitalization and technology.
She also urged parents to make deliberate efforts to monitor their children’s activities not all about their cognitive learning, but skills and ethical and character development as moral decadent has taken over the world.
In a goodwill message at the ceremony, the Parish laity council President, Mr Fidelis Alpha, appreciated the children for turning out for the exercise and advised them to make good use of it.
The Parish President of the Catholic Men Organization (CMO), Mr Michael Idam, described the children as the future leaders of tomorrow and acknowledged that lessons and exercises like these will adequately prepare them for that task of leadership in the future. He advised them to always do the right thing even when nobody is watching and to avoid those things they know is wrong.
Similarly, the Parish President of the Catholic Women Organization (CWO), Mrs Anne Odenyi encouraged them to make good use of the opportunity and urged them to listen carefully to all the selected topics so that they can become better persons there after.
Also, Parish President of the Catholic Youths Organization of Nigeria (CYON), Mr. Fidelis Agala, reminded them that the misuse of technology is wrong, and that most people have been victims of Cyber bullying unknowingly and urged to count themselves privileged for the opportunity.
The PLAI representative Mr. Bani Kole, urged the children to put whatever they will learn in the course of this exercise into practice, even as he called on them to always report any inappropriate things they observe around them to their parents.
The four day non-resident holiday camp which started with an opening Mass, witnessed varieties of activities like; talkshows, panel discussions, training and skills acquisition, quizzes, aerobics, dance and music, came to an end with a charity visit to the IDP camp at Durumi on Thursday.
