THE SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT:

IMBISA-Social Communications Department came into being in 1973 under the name Secretariat of Southern Africa Region for Social Communication (SARCOM). In 1975, SARCOM held its first meeting under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication. It shared an orientation of how this Secretariat should work in order to set up a network of Communication in Southern Africa. At that moment IMBISA was not yet in place and the Southern Region was still made up of only English-speaking countries, though the consultation was going on for a broader formation of the Region.

With the Independence of Mozambique and Angola, the first effort was the introduction of SARCOM as a way to communicate among different Episcopal conferences including the three Portuguese-speaking countries (Angola, Mozambique and São Tome e Principe).  With the official establishment of IMBISA in 1984  during its First Plenary Assembly, SARCOM moved to Harare and it changed it name to IMBISA Social Communications Department. 

The mandate of the department was to:

  1. establish a communication network among IMBISA member countries;
  2. establish a bilingual secretariat ;
  3. facilitate communication among the bishops;
  4. animate and organize communication courses at IMBISA level
  5. train people who could possibly take communication jobs at Episcopal Conference level (both the religious and the laity)
  6. represent IMBISA Social Communications  at continental and intercontinental levels.

In 1987 during a meeting with all the Bishops Chairmen of Social Communications Commissions from the Region, the Department came out with a Communication Policy for the Region, which was formulated as follows: Training at all levels, providing media towards the voiceless and the poor who are not counted in the main stream media and working towards planning for communication courses in both basic or traditional media and electronic media.



Sr. Veronica Dingi giving a welcome speech during the 2006 Annual General Meeting in Maputo while Mr Langa gives the translation.

 

Through this department IMBISA has been able to collaborate and share information with other 6 regions of Africa as well as international conferences. 

In 1988 the department organised several workshops in Lesotho and Zimbabwe for the personnel in the refugee camps.  From then on the department organised training course in communications for dioceses and national officers and also for the personnel that run and work in the Catholic radio stations.

 

The department in conjunction with AMECEA communications department produced three Communications Manuals, which are to be used by Seminaries. The Manuals are in both English and Portuguese.

From its beginning the department was coordinated by Sr. Marlene Scholz and from  1993, Sr. Lucy Rodrigues was appointed co-ordinator of the department until December 1996.  In 1997 Fr. Bernardo Suate of Mozambique became co-ordinator with Sr. Veronica Dingi, CPS as Assistant. In 2003 Sr. Veronica Dingi took over as the coordinator of the department.