Chennai (India). On 14 August 2021, the Webinar of the Salesian Institutions of Higher Education of Asia (ISS – FMA) took place, organized by the Indian Province of St. Thomas the Apostle (INM), on the theme: Born to fly – Psychosocial well-being in pandemic time”.
The Webinar, coordinated by Sr. Regina Mary FMA, was attended by more than 350 Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, educators, and students of the ISS – FMA Asia, which include six Institutes of Higher Studies in India, two in the Philippines, and one in Japan.
Present were Sr. Ivone Goulart, FMA, Referent of the Sector for Youth Ministry for the ISS-FMA Network; Sr. Sarah Garcia, FMA, collaborator of the Sector for the Youth Ministry and Referent for the Human Rights Office (IIMA) of Geneva; Sr. Lolia Annie, collaborator of the Sector for Youth Ministry; and the Leaders of the ISS-FMA Institutions in Asia.
The Webinar began with an invocation to God, for the gift of the family meeting between the ISS-FMA of Asia.
Dr. Mary Gabriel I., Associate Professor of English at Auxilium College in Vellore, India, greeted the participants and introduced the speaker, Dr. Sundar Wilson, Franciscan Capuchin, Director of the Anugraha Center for Counseling and Psychotherapy of Dindigul, Tamilnadu, India.
Fr. Wilson, expressing the joy of being able to interact with young students from different parts of Asia, highlighted some values to be proposed to young people such as perseverance, family love, managing fear, the inferiority complex, and difficult situations. He underlined how everyone should welcome himself/herself and feel at ease, to be positive with others and with the world.
He presented some examples of people like Lupita Nyongo, a Mexican Kenyan actress; Wilma Rudolph, an American track and field athlete; Nick Vuijic, an Australian motivational speaker who have been successful in life despite physical difficulties.
Ms. Ragaswetha, Student at Auxilium College in Vellore, took up with concrete examples Fr. Wilson’s theme on the values that young people should make their own for a fruitful and hopeful future.
