Rome (Italy). On 27 July 2023, the online meeting was held between coordinators and educators of the Institutions of Higher Studies and Schools of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the representatives of the “Centro Latinoamericano de Aprendizaje y Servicio Solidario” (CLAYSS) – born to accompany and serve students, educators, and community organizations in implementing educational solidarity or learning-service projects – and of Uniservitate, a global program that promotes solidarity-based learning and service in Catholic institutions of Higher Education.
The objective of the meeting was “Introduce yourself and discern what forms of collaboration and joint work to establish in the future between CLAYSS/Uniservitate and the FMA – Schools and ISS-FMA, in response to the Global Educational Pact”. Present at the meeting were 67 participants coming from 52 Institutions on four continents.
Nieves Tapia, founder and director of CLAYSS and Andrès Peregalli of Uniservitate opened the meeting, introducing the participants. Sr. Ivone Goulart, collaborator of the Youth Ministry Sector of the FMA Institute and ISS-FMA Representative then led a moment of welcome and prayer.
Thanking the participants for their presence at this significant meeting, Sister Ivone addressed them as follows: “I hope that from this first meeting many others can arise to strengthen a network of solidarity. In Italy and in other realities of the Salesian world, there is already a very beautiful collaboration. Some of us know the CIOFS Italia book on ‘Didactics and Solidarity, learning-service and the Preventive System’. Everything is interconnected and we need to work harder to implement it in our realities.” She concluded this first moment by presenting the Institutions of Higher Studies.
This was followed by an in-depth analysis of the theme in relation to the Educational Pact developed by developed by Maria Rosa Tapia, Candelária Ferrara and the various representatives, and then looking at possible strategic alliances and collaborations, and at the next steps together.
From this event, a number of scheduled meetings between Uniservitate – CLAYSS and some Institutions were born. The proposal for other meetings at the nodal points of the network also emerged. The hypothesis of creating a map with all the solidarity service projects already implemented or underway in the ISS-FMA has also been advanced.
In the Message for the launch of the Educational Pact, the “courage to invest the best energies with creativity and responsibility” is among the steps indicated by Pope Francis to walk together the common path of the “education village”, which he motivated as follows:
“Proactive and confident action opens up education to long-term planning, which does not get bogged down in static conditions. In this way, we will have people who are open, responsible, willing to find time for listening, dialogue, and reflection, and capable of building a network of relationships with families, between generations, and with the various expressions of civil society, thus to compose a new humanism”.
