Chile: education to motherhood
The
Communication Sector of the Salesian Province in Chile, in
collaboration with the Caetera Tolle Multimedia Centre has launched a
new audiovisual product, about young mothers and a programme running
for over 10 years in the cities of Santiago and Arica by the Damas
Salesianas Association. The project provides assistance for pregnant
adolescents during the various stages of pregnancy, giving birth and
caring for the infant during its first six months.
As an expression of the Salesians work in
regard to the Millennium Development Objectives which among other
things propose to reduce infant mortality and improve the mothers
health the Milenio Team, coordinated by the Communication Sector of
the Province, has produced a video showing the work done by the
professionals and the volunteers of the Damas Salesianas Association
with pregnant adolescents in La Pintana and La Florida, as part of a
programme which at present also enjoys the support of the National
Service for Women in Chile.
The programme of the Damas Salesianas is
called Emprende Mam and complements the public policies for infant
protection. It aims to develop the potential of the young women as
mothers, in terms of its social benefits. The accompaniment process
begins in the fourth month of pregnancy and continues until the birth
and the first months afterwards. The work has been undertaken for over
a year in the city and involves workshops with mid-wives, social
assistants, psychcologists, helpers and volunteers.
The programme has been recognised by
various goverment institutions and most significantly has
become part of Emprende Mam in national public policy and the
programme Chile grows with you.
The Missionary Office in Turin is
collaborating with the Communication Sector of the Province by
funding audiovisual products illustrating the development programmes
undertaken in the Salesian world connected with the Millennium
Objectives The Milenio Team is already working on two other
productions, one on preserving the environment and the other on the
social, educational and evangelising work undertaken by the
Salesian Community in the Porvenir area of Punta
Arenas.
Peru: Radio Don Bosco celebrates one year
On 21 May Radio Don Bosco Per was one year old. What started in a small
oratory, is now a radio wed-site listened to by thousands of young
people in all the five continents, on the web and on social
networks. Fr Augusto Sakihama SDB and Abel Camesasca, a communications
expert have been responsible, developing the idea of the virtual
playground.
Radio Don Bosco began in the San Juan Bosco
del Agostino Oratory where a group of postnovices and committed lay
people, using a set of loud-speakers, entertained youngsters during the
afternoons. The volume was so high that it could also be heard in the
nearby houses.
Later Fr Sakihama and Mr Camesasca
began to think that what had been done in one oratory could be repeated
in others, linked together in the form of a virtual playground. In
this way. with the help of the Salesian Communications Centre, on 21
May 2011, at the beginning of the triduum for the Feast of Mary Help of
Christians Radio Don Bosco Per was launched on the web.
Some young past pupils are the ones
mainly responsible for the radio and the people listening to the
programmes are in their thousands in all the five continents. Very
often the broadcasts are replayed in Salesian oratories and in
recreation time also in some Salesian institutes in various countries.
The young DJs generously devote a lot of their
time to making various programmes and continuously working on
their own training so that they can provide new musical experiences for
all the young people of the world.
Brazil young communicators
From
18th to 20th May there was a National Seminar for Young Communicators
in Brasilia. It was promoted by the Youth Commission and the
Communications Department of the Episcopal Conference of Brazil (CNBB).
The aim of the weekend was to provide formation for young professionals
in various media and several representatives from the Salesian presence
in Brazil took part.
The meeting began with a round-table
discussion of the Popes message for World Communications Day, Silence
and Word: Path of Evangelization. Fr Eduardo Pinheiro SDB, Chair of the
Youth Commission, reminded the young communicators of their
responsibility for evangelization: Your greatest responsibility is not
only to communicate well, or to transmit faith or values, but something
even greater: to help the Church and society to understand what is
happening in youth culture, which is permeated by the culture of the
media.
On 19th May the day centred on a message which
Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, Chair of the Pontifical Council for
Social Communications, gave in a live video conference. It was based on
the theme of Brazils commitment to World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro
in 2013, and on testimonies from young people. I know that the young
people from all over the world will receive a fraternal welcome, said
the prelate, but I think that you should be offering something more:
the witness of a deeply Christian life. Your friends who are coming
will be hoping to meet you as disciples of Jesus. This is the greatest
communication which you should be offering to all the young people
taking part in World Youth Day.
Don Antonio Spadaro SJ, a lecturer at the
Gregorian University in Rome, said in his talk: The Internet is no
longer an instrument, but an environment, an integral part of our daily
life. So the real challenge for the Church is not to use the web
well, but to live it well, to live in the web as in an environment. We
exist in the web. A part of our life is digital, and a part of our life
of Faith is also digital: it is a place where our Faith is lived out.
On Sunday 20th, the final day of the Seminar,
Sr lide Folgolari, adviser to the Communications Department of CNBB,
organised group work in which the participants were encouraged to
reflect on the topic How can we communicate Christian life through our
profession? In all the reports, the key word turned out to be
witness.
After this the Youth Commission gave a
presentation on its current plans and activities, drawing attention to
a web site for young people, www.jovensconectados.org.br ,
already in operation for a year and intended to motivate and animate
young people in the lead up to World Youth Day 2013.
Do you
want to prepare a banner for sdb.org?
You could prepare for an upcoming feast
day, or the Strenna theme or other....
570x165 px
please.
Guadalajara-Mexico City: SC Delegates, the Americas. 4-7 August at Guadalajara, and 7-9 August in Mexico City
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Animation - Letter from Fr Filiberto
My dear confreres and friends of SC,
Each
year, from May to October, the Department and Provincial SC Delegates
are involved pretty thoroughly in the editing, promotion, production
and distribution of the Salesian Annual (the 'Salesians' Magazine).
This magazine, which the Rector Major himself has asked us to produce
in order to make the good news known and offer a broad image of the
Congregation, goes to its fourth edition this year, despite the threat
of economic crisis and a relatively low promotion, but we are convinced
that we can overcome these things by keeping costs even lower and
arriving at a more systematic promotion in each province with help from
the Provincial SC Delegate.
The editorial plan for the Magazine is to accompany the process of
preparation and celebration of the Bicentenary of Don Bosco's birth
over the next three years, using the central themes for this: Don Bosco
- history, 2013, his pedagogy, 2014, his spirituality, 2015. In 2016 it
will take up the impact of this process and the celebration of the
Bicentenary.
As you can see, the Magazine will be of considerable help to the
provinces over the next four years, so we need a robust promotion on
your part within your own SC planning. The Department entrusts itself
to your capacity to encourage all of our communities and works to order
copies. The Magazine is something which deserves this support. and of
course the higher the number of orders from a province, the lower the
cost, and the greater the reach of its message.
So please continue to do your bit to increase orders: I hope to
receive, no later than the end of June, a larger number of such from
you. Use everything at your disposal to sell the idea and the product
to each of the Rectors in the Province. Each place has so many
people to thank and to let see the good work the Congregation achieves
each year throughout the world. and similarly, each of our communities
has people who need to know about all this good work so they can be
involved in the great movement which Don Bosco dreamed of on behalf of
young people. For people today, whatever is not seen does not
exist.
My prayer for you, your communities and your work. Greetings too from the SC Department Team.
Fr Filiberto Gonzlez, Councillor for SC
Congratulations to the Irish Province for their completely new website!
And congratulations to
the prenovices of Kolkata Province, India, who with just one computer
with internet connection (that of their brother assistant).... file
their stories snatching time when there is electricity during the
day....
on the only computer they have access to.
There will certainly be other new websites, but these are the ones most recently notified to us.
NEW DELEGATES:
* Colombia Medellin (COM):
Sra. Claudia Luca Salazar Hoyos
comunicaciones@salesianosmedellin.org
* India: national delegate
Fr Antony Earatha (DB Nitika, Kolkata province INC)
ejantony@gmail.com
* Southern Philippines (FIS):
Fr Randy Figuracion.
ranzfigu@yahoo.com
Formation: in consecrated life
Formation in Consecrated Life: challenges and opportunities
Socio-cultural changes
Amongst changes triggered by the advent of the digital we shall spend
time on two things that are significant features today: the enormous
speed and powerful pervasiveness of technological innovations. The key
to interpreting and managing this social change can be found in digital
literacy, meaning the spread of the necessary understanding for use of
digital systems. Then there is the overdose of knowledge,
superabundance of information circulating on the Web. In the final
analysis, this cognitive overload is tackled through formation to
critical and creative use of information.
Managing change
From the speed of transformations that generate a sense of accelerated
time, emerges the need for rapid decision-making. Any delay in
intervention is accompanied by a loss of ability to manage things. And
from the invasive pervasiveness arises a need for a complex of
interventions in various areas of society. Changes become an
anthropological question giving life to a new way of socialising, and
is in part a way of managing communication and interpersonal
relationships.
Digital language (e.g. hypertext) transforms thinking structures and
produces change relative to the way we get to know things and express
them, especially when it comes to the so-called digital natives, a
'human species' ever more apparent, and marked by growth and immersion
in a telematic environment... their knowledge is no long of the linear
kind.
We need to educate digital natives especially, to have the courage to
disconnect, a gesture that helps inward reflection on new input in a
way that it can be part of their individual subjectivity. The
opportunity for enjoying moments and places for silence, allowing them
to savour once again the gentle, slow rhythms of life, should not be a
luxury for the very few, but a right guaranteed for all.
All authentic communication grows and matures within personal
encounter, following the exquisite logic of dialogue and gentle
encouragement of iddeas. In practical terms, the challenge becomes the
ability to pass from connection to communion, for a genuine and vital
integration between digital space and the human contract.
Production: Data-harvesting online
There
appears to be a new area of production growing steadily within Salesian
circles, and undoubtedly the coming GC27, with its own needs for
accurately, broad collection of data and subsequent interpretation,
will spur yet further efforts in this regard. We refer to the
harvesting, and then the presentation, of appropriate Salesian data
online.
The Congregation, provinces, particular
sectors of activity are moving from data collection on paper to online
collection and online re-presentation. This move is inevitable, given
development in the same area at every level of both government and
private enterprise.
It could be very helpful at this stage, for Social Communications
Delegates at Province level to look at the situation with several
questions in mind:
* What examples of online data collection and presentation are you
aware of in the province and its various sectors of activity?
* If there is something being done, how is it
being done? With commercial software or a home-grown approach?
* Are you, the delegate, aware that the SC
Department initiated online data collection for its own purposes?
If you can enter and fill out this page,
have you done so recently, especially if some 'live' data has altered?
If you are unable to fill it out (because it does not allow you to)
then have you registered with sdb.org?
These are just starting points. With the increasing number of
Salesian databanks, other questions emerge. Most large websites now
have a database backend. It would be good, obviously, if
data in these databases could in some way be linked to provide a united
front for Salesian data online. It is possible, The guidelines
are as follows. It is known as the
5 STAR TEST
and the idea is to achieve 5 stars. Most times our data presntation achieves just 2 stars!
* make your data available on the web (whatever format)
** make it available as structured data (e.g. spreadsheet instead of image scan of a table)
*** non-proprietary format (e.g. csv instead of excel)
**** use URLs to identify things, so that people can point at your stuff
***** link your data to other peoples data to provide context.
If the data you present reaches 5 stars:
- People can discover more (related) data while consuming the data.
- People can directly learn
about the data schema.
As a data publisher ...
- You
may need to invest time and effort to link your data to other data
on the Web.
- You
make your data discoverable.
- You increase the value of
your data.
The
SC Department is available to offer more extensive ideas on the
above. But one thing is certain - we now need to be taking online
Salesian data very seriously.
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