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Edition October 2001

General Information from the Editors

Articles for Link December 2001 should be sent before 25^th of November and the deadline for Link February 2001 is 25^th of January. Please send them if possible by email to mdeblonde@web.de or to carmec@bsab.com. Thank you!

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Africa

Partnership between Chirojeugd Flanders and Chiro Southern Africa

A call for candidates in the leaders' magazine, brought together on the 1^st of July, 2001, at the national Belgian airport, 15 Chiro young people who did not know each other before. Together they travelled to South Africa, enthusiastic to take a step in the unknown... Cape Town, African territory... and so many impressions: black people, the first township, the rich district with beautiful houses next to it... some tourist activities like a visit to the national museum, to the penguin reservation and shopping! The purpose of all this was partnership between Chiro Flanders and Chiro South Africa. The following is their experience...

Four days after we arrived, we split up in little groups of three or four people looking forward to meet our first host families and very excited about what we would experience. We were to meet again altogether in Bloemfontein.

We had a week with various intense experiences and in fact it was great to meet again at Bloemfontein. We did not have enough time and neither words to express our experiences. The first immersion week was very positive for all of us, with quite a lot of different activities: visiting churches, spending a week in a township, visiting hospitals and singing to the ill. These activities were all possible through contacts with the local Chiro group.

The days we spent together were full of impressions, experiences, new people... all so different but recognizable. By then we were already looking forward for our next immersion week. The nine of us were split in groups to go to Botswana (on camp), to Rustenburg, Klerksdorp, Dundee, Kroonstad and Pretoria.

We met again after a week in Durban, happy to see each other and again with lots of positive and less positive impressions. This was an enormous experience we could not put into words easily. At the end of the three weeks, we met to have a feast in Durban with some guests Shaun Dunn, Them Bile and Co. After a short walk on the beach we took the plane back home. At home, it was quite difficult to turn to daily matters. In fact it is not so easy to forget the three weeks we passed together in an "other" world. Above all we are all looking forward to meet each other again because it was an adventure we feel we can only really share with those who were there.

Excerpts from Dubbelpunt October 2001

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News from Kiro Congo

We received a letter from Lubumbashi, on the 5th of September, from César Bamwepela, the national secretary of Kiro Congo. They expressed their regrets for not participating at the General Assembly, but the steps undertaken for the journey to Ghana were blocked when they were getting new passports.

In this letter they gave us some information about their organisation. The 149 local groups are spread over 5 dioceses (Lubumbashi, Kamina, Sakania- Kip. Kolwezi, Kilwa Kasen). They have presently 18,290 members and 873 leaders. Communication with the dioceses of Kinshasa, Kabinda and Kananga is difficult and sometimes even impossible with the dioceses in the occupied territory.

They organise deanery meetings in urban areas for different age groups and when it is possible, also for leaders. In rural deaneries they do not organise meetings, due to the long distances between the missions and the bad road conditions.

Projects for the year 2001/2002 are the following:

• Visits to the centres of Kabinda and Kananga, to increase and stabilise the number of groups. These dioceses are quite far from Lubumbashi.
• Meeting with the Kiro group of Kinshasa for encouragement.
• New training programmes for leaders and training brochures.
• Meeting of the national board in July 2002, in Kamina, at about 700 km from Lubumbashi, in order to ease the participation of the centres of Kabinda and Kananga.
• National meeting for the 12-14 year old young people at the end of August 2002, in Likasi.
• Attention to the displaced due to war, and especially the children and the youngsters by the Kiro Missionary.
• An action plan in favour of a camp of war refugees by each Diocese.
• Environment cleansing by each deanery, like in the past years.

César Bamwepela, National Secretary

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News from Kiro Kabinda, Congo

Norbert Mervilde paid a visit to the Fimcap secretariat on September 10^th 2001. Norbert has been working for years at the Scheutist mission post in the diocese of Kabinda. He is taking care of Chiro youth work. In daily life, he has to cope with the Congolese war consequences. The rebels have invaded the territory from the eastern part and occupy the largest part of the province. The town of Kabinda where the mission is located, is the only town which has not been affected. Regular troops and the UNO observers are present in this area.

Occupied territories surround the town, but the situation is rather stable. However, it is not possible to travel to other parts of the province, and there are great difficulties to provide the town with food. For neutrality reasons, the UNO air transport, can only be used to provide their own people with food. Hence the only solution is to use a corridor to the next town, Mbuji-Mayi, which is about 150 km. However travelling is very fastidious as the roads are extremely bad and often blocked.

Nevertheless life is going on, but Kiro work is very difficult. There are 4 groups in Kabinda - city, but the contacts with the groups in the rest of the province are quite impossible. Post and telephone are not working. Letters can only forwarded by carriers, people who cross the occupied areas. This is a dangerous undertaking because if you get caught in occupied territories, you might be killed or enrolled by force in the rebel army.

In fact, there are some "patrollers" who do cross these areas to supply the town with food from the rural areas. Due to this scarcity, the main activity for both for Kiro and the old and young is to look for something to eat. At the mission, there is a radio transmitter which enables them to send news into the occupied territories and to keep a link between the groups. Norbert's hope is that when armed conflicts calm down and borderlines become official, he will be able to go to the other area, have exchanges and some kind of regional Kiro work.

Another war consequence is that ethnical differences are more incisive and so some ethnical groups have become the targets of rebel groups. For instance in Kabinda there are displaced people coming from Katanga. However it happened that these people have a strong Kiro tradition and it is just great to see that thanks to them, there is a positive influence in the local groups instead of the usual negativity felt around the province. It is also a fact, that ethnical differences are much less important in the Kiro community. During activities, tribal differences do not play any role. This is a small sign of hope that certainly shows hard work and definitely is merited to the Chiro movement.

We wish Norbert all the best for his task and the important work there.

Zeger Van Besien

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Latin America

News from Jupach Chile

On Wednesday October 10^th, we had a meeting in Bruges (B) with Angela Snijers from Chile. Angela, a Belgian lay-worker, has been in Jupach for 38 years (since the very beginning). She talked quite openly about the country, the socio-economic differences, the difficulty to keep young people in leading positions and the struggle with some church leaders who want to see Jupach as a catechising organisation. It does not always seem easy, apparently.

This year they had a big survey within the groups. Through this survey the national secretariat became aware of precise figures about members and leaders and also become conscious of the groups' problems and concerns. The national board now has enough material to work on. They also worked on a new series of games and had them printed. This publication will be a useful tool for the groups, just like the recently published book on handicraft "con mis manos" ("with my hands"). All Jupach leaders will meet for a training camp at the beginning of November 2002, somewhere in the middle of the country, where the mountains are covered with perpetual snow. This is an initiative in which leaders from other countries are invited. More news will follow later. It was really nice to meet each other. Jupach sends greetings to all of us. Greetings to you in Chile and lots of success for your work.

Johan Cottyn

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Europe

Successful seminar in Haarlem, the Netherlands, first September weekend

One of the basics of international youth work is getting young people from different countries together to share ideas and form new friendships. But many European organisations find it difficult to reach the youngsters and motivate them to participate in international activities. This problem was being felt by so many organisations that Jong Nederland proposed to organise a seminar on this theme.

Jong Nederland found funds to finance the seminar and reimburse part of the travel costs. This made it possible for several organisations to send some extra participants. This was very important because to have a good international working group a number of people should essentially be present. About 25 people from all over Europe came together. Main contributors to the seminar are the European Youth programme and the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports.

On Friday evening all participants arrived at the youth hostel in Haarlem. After a small snack the programme started. In small groups everybody started to work on a promotion campaign for a certain international activity. The next morning the different promotion campaigns were presented. Together with a professional on the field of communication, promotion and motivation, we evaluated them and set out the criteria for a good promotion campaign. After that we used the rest of the weekend to work on the promotion of Fimcap activities.

Many old ideas were renewed. Rusty knowledge was refreshed and new ideas were launched. Of course not everything we thought about could be realised in just a weekend. But we managed to do a lot of work and exchange a lot of insights and new ideas. And last but not least, some concrete products were made and tasks were divided. Most participants valued the seminar as very useful and interesting.

The organisers of the seminar are still working on a report on the seminar. If you are interested in it, you can always ask for a copy. You can ask for it at the secretariat of Fimcap.

Corno de Mol

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Roundabout

Two years of Roundabout exchange CCCCCE - Chirojeugd Flanders

August 2000

We are at the airport. It is 8 am. Youngsters from a local CCCCCE will leave. The leaders are nervous. So many months of work, of projects, of dreams will soon come true. We take the plane to Belgium where a local Chiro group and its leaders are waiting for us to go on their summer camp. If everything works well, it will be their turn to come to Catalonia, to take part in our camp next summer.

For sure, you can imagine that youngsters who have never taken a plane are quite nervous and silent at the same time because of their emotions. Somebody is late and this is enough to become more hysterical. He arrives just in time for boarding. Keep cool! We say good-bye to our parents and board the plane.

From now on, everything is easy and simple. A little sightseeing, welcome in the host families, cycle tours, an unforgettable camp, various activities, a different organisation. Other people... This has been a unique experience, where friendship and the new relations between the groups are only the top of the iceberg. The youngsters from Catalonia have had the opportunity to experience something unique and fundamental they will never forget. The opportunity to spend 13 days with the local group of Heckel-Eksel, a small Flemish village, is tremendous and you can understand what this beautiful experience means only if you experience it yourself. All the efforts to raise funds, to fill in endless and complicated applications for subsidies, were worth it. And the best of all is that we still have one year to prepare the camp where we will have the honour to show our country and our way of life and to share.

August 2001

At last they have arrived. We spend the 2 first days between Barcelona and Granollers (our village) as an appetiser. Than we collected all people to go to Oix, our camp place. The boys and the girls had prepared the biggest part of the programme.

A series of unforgettable impressions. We did some activities the Belgians did not know and other activities they had prepared themselves. It was really great to to be able to share with each other what could not be transmitted in words. In reality it is what we share usually in all camps, yet this time it had a different perspective. It was an experience we will never forget.

Some leaders have talked about going to Belgium next summer and some Belgian leaders will come to visit us during the Christmas holidays. We all hope to meet again in Paris in two years time. Roundabout, gives you all this and much more... You have to experience it yourself to understand better. We encourage all local groups in Fimcap to do a similar experience. Many thanks to the boys and the girls of Chiro Lode and their leaders. You know we will keep you in our hearts.

Youth Group - Colonias Sant Esteve - CCCCCE

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News from Jungwacht-Blauring Switzerland

Annual "Ranfttreffen" on the Theme "typical"

About 2,500 youth come together at Flüeli-Ranft (near Lucerne) every year. You start your walking tour during the night with a group. Throughout the two breaks in a house the group members have the possibility to get to know each other. There are different activities to participate in: i.e. folk dancing, singing, listening to music, New Games, doing handicrafts or just do anything you like. At half past two, right in the middle of the night, in the narrow valley "Ranft", enlightened by thousands of torches and candles, a service will be celebrated outside. What's left? The way to a village where everybody will get a small breakfast.

Details

• Youths elder than 15 years are invited to participate.
• From Sat, 15^th Dec. at 6.00 p.m. till Sun, 16^th Dec. at 6.00 a.m.

Further information:
Bundesleitungen BR/JW,
Ranfttreffen,
St. Karliquai 12,
CH-6000 Luzern 5, Switzerland
Phone +41'41'419'47'47
Fax +41'41'419'47'48
E-Mail: bulei@jubla.ch
Internet: www.ranfttreffen.ch

Pascal Vonlanthen

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