Rome (Italy). The book, VIDES: a project for the young, by Sr. Maria Grazia Caputo, FMA, has been published by EMI Publishers, Verona 2020).
The text follows the history of Vides (Volunteers Woman Education Development) which arose in in the mid-eighties (1987). It is the history of an educational passion that reached and involved many people, FMA, lay people, and young people.
Thus, the proposal of educational volunteering runs through the history of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians from the beginning and is offered to young people as an opportunity for formation, service, and human promotion. The author reconstructs the events through the years, highlights the strengths, the reasons for growth and transformation. Particular emphasis is given to the testimonies of young people from different cultures and religions of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America who, by sharing the project, contributed to its development.
Since its origins, Vides has counted on the ability of young people to take charge of the poorest and most marginalized, continuing what St. John Bosco and St. Mary Domenica Mazzarello had intuited and initiated: not only to work for young people, but to believe in young people, entrusting to them human animation and promotion activities in disadvantaged and poor contexts. Thanks to young people, we discover that solidarity is possible in the commitment that unites many young people and lay people in the world.
“In my mission, the experience of Vides is part of me. I wish that it may contagion many young people so that they may dedicate time and energy to promote the transformation of society and justice, to counteract poverty, to empower the growth of the human person in their dignity, and to evangelize” (FMA).
