Thailandia - Seminario “I Giovani costruttori di una civiltà dell’amore attraverso i Diritti Umani, la Democrazia e il Dialogo Interculturale”
31/08/10
Last August 15-17, VIDES International organized the seminar entitled “Young People: Builders of A Civilization of Love Through Human Rights, Democracy and Interculturality” at Sampran, Thailand. At the opening ceremonies, Sr. Leonor Salazar, Director General of VIDES, welcomed the participants coming from the countries of Italy, Geneva, Mexico, Cambodia, USA, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and India. Messages from FMA Mother General Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, Salesian Family Councillor In Charge Sr. Luisa Miranda, and the VIDES Volunteers from North America and the Carribean were eagerly received by the participants. Sr. Agnese, Provincial Superior of Thailand, warmly welcomed the participants to the Ban Than Praphorn, the FMA’s House of Blessing.
Sr. Leonor Salazar presented and explained the itinerary of the seminar organized by VIDES International and also gave an update on the presence of VIDES worldwide, with 4,425 volunteers in 38 countries. All in all there are 52 VIDES groups and of these, 21 have government recognition. She also presented the Italian version of the document on the Guidelines for VIDES Volunteers. At the ECOSOC of the United Nations, VIDES International holds a consultative status.
For the duration of the entire seminar, Sr. Jojo FMA and the Volunteers of VIDES Philippines acted as moderators and facilitators.
Mr. Rungrote Tangsurakit discussed the topic: “Human Rights in the Asian Context”. At the end of his talk, we have the first workshop entitled “Emerging Problems at the national level on Human Rights, specifically concerning women and children”. The top three problems are child abuse, child labor, and lack of taking responsibility for one’s actions.
Sr. Maria Grazia Caputo, the Director of the FMA Human Rights Office in Geneva and Founder of VIDES, discussed about Human Rights and the UN Process. She also tackled the three generations or levels of human rights namely: the civil and political rights, the economic, social and cultural rights, and the collective rights. She emphasized that as members of the Salesian Family living the Preventive System of Don Bosco, we follow the path of education, especially of youth, children, and women. After her input, we have the second workshop which yielded the countries’ respective reports about the challenges, conditions, and benefits in promoting and defending human rights.The participants identified fear and lack of awareness about one’s rights as the greatest block in promoting and defending human rights. Education of the person as well as education to human rights came out as the best condition in being able to promote and defend human rights. For the benefits of promoting human rights, the results of the workshop showed true peace, development, growth, security and happiness.
For the second day of the workshop, Sr. Maria Grazia developed the topic: “The Right to Education as the Key to all Human Rights”. She underlined the value of education, which belongs to the second generation of human rights. According to her, Education is very important in our mission as VIDES Volunteers and FMA Delegates. As educators, we are challenged to draw out and develop the potentials and possibilities of the young people. At the end of her talk, the workshop entitled “All Rights for All” produced the values and stategies in promoting the right to education, which include the capacity to choose responsibly, to enhance teamwork and networking, and to fortify values formation.
Mr. Guido Barbera, President of VIDES International and the Italian NGO Coalition, presented the topic entitled “Democracy: an ideal or a concrete possibility?” Democracy, according to him, could be traced in biblical times, when Jesus Himself declared to His apostles that whatever they held bound on earth would likewise be held bound in heaven. He emphasized the value of teamwork in democracy and related this to the role of VIDES members as volunteers. He also said that democracy is a necessity and not a luxury. The fourth workshop brought out the countries’ reports on the conditions, challenges and solutions to authentic democracy. According to the participants, access to information and effective participation are the most important conditions for authentic democracy and that the challenges involved are the indifference of people, materialism, and lack of knowledge about democracy. For the solutions, education, networking, and the honest search for truth are among the topmost.
In the evening, the film “Invictus” was shown for further deepening and reflection on the topic on human rights.
For the third day, the participants presented their respective countries’ cultures and traditions. This is in view of deepening the topic on interculturality. Madam Chintana delivered her talk about Interculturality, underlining the value of openness, acceptance and respect towards individual differences and cultures.
At the end of the three-day seminar, the participants drafted their VIDES Group’s commitments anchored on building a civilization of love through human rights, democracy, and interculturality. These commitments were formally declared by the VIDES Volunteers before the assembly.
To conclude the day’s topic on interculturality, the Feast of Gratitude and the presentation of various cultural numbers was done at the Hall of Ban Than Phraporn. It was truly a Salesian way of celebrating our gratitude and unity as one big family of VIDES Volunteers and FMA Delegates.
The following day, before the next training course, a half-day tour at the King’s Palace in Bangkok was conducted, which truly delighted the participants. It was a most welcome break after the seminar.
In the afternoon, Mr. Guido Barbera opened the “Project Management Course” which lasted from August 18-20, 2010. The creation of the Problem Tree, the Objective Tree and the Logical Framework per country aided the participants’ understanding of the topic at hand. The participants’ outputs were individually presented and discussed in the assembly for comments and feedback. This way, the learning process was both interactive and stimulating. Mr. Barbera likewise guided the participants on how to write projects that would enable them to generate grants for the mission of the VIDES Volunteers among youth, women and children.
