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Edition April 2003

World camp

As you already know, next world camp will take place between 9th and 26th of July 2003 in the Philippines. Every participant will receive more concrete and practical information in the following weeks, but we want to give you the information concerning the three projects in which we are going to collaborate during our stay in the country:

At the same time we want to auger all the Chiro Philippines leaders who are preparing for the world camp. We will meet you soon!

Carme carrion i Ribas

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Before taking up the first point on the agenda, Carme congratulated Zeger on the birth of his second son, Milan, and gave him a little welcome present for the baby on behalf of the ICB Bureau. The first important point of the agenda was the situation in the Fimcap regions. In Africa, things are improving quite well. In Sierra Leone, they have started up youth work in parishes again with the support of the bishops and are having contacts on national level. (see article below) The situation in West Africa is not very secure because of the rebellions in Liberia and Ivory coast, and this might affect Ghana.

The political situation in central Africa is still critical (Burundi, Congo, Rwanda...) but the youth organisations are doing their best. They celebrated their golden Jubilee or will celebrate it this year. News from Nippac is quite positive, the new national team is working well. The news from Chile was rather bad, as the ecclesiastic assistant of Jupach, Angèle Snyers has had a serious health problem. She is now recovering at home and is much better. We wish her the very best. We had also news from Haiti after a long silence (see article below). In Europe there is also a positive dynamic, a good planning and a lot of energy and commitment of some countries.

We had a look at the finances. Considering the financial situation in general and the budget for 2003, we can say that the balance is quite positive. However there is a large expense this year due to the world camp. We had an extended discussion on financial management, fundraising, subventions and applications.

A big part of the meeting was devoted to the preparations of the world camp in the Philippines in July. Because of the war in Iraq and the general insecurity in many parts of the world, there has been a discussion about possible risks, but finally everybody agreed that it is important that the World Camp takes place, as the projects have already been chosen and worked out, and the preparations in the Philippines are nearly completed. It is nevertheless a fact that the financial aspect of this project is quite heavy and the financial support is very poor up to now, with possible consequences on the numbers of participants.

Two other points on the agenda focused on the continental Assemblies of Fimcap Africa and Fimcap Europe, with the evaluation of their conference, the past way of working, the new perspectives and the tasks of the new presidium.

The Fimcap presidium also evaluated its way of working and future possibilities, with a special attention to the tasks of the General Secretary. Former Fimcap president Olivier Heyen who is involved in the co-ordination committee of the ICO’s joined us to talk about the International Catholic Organisations (ICO) and their new statutes.

On Saturday evening, some Fimcap friends, collaborators and former Bureau members living in Belgium joined the ICB members to spend and enjoy the evening together. Many thanks to the hosting families in and around Antwerp, to Bert and Zeger for taking care of the well-being of the Bureau members.

Marleen Deblonde

Marleen Deblonde

Marleen Deblonde

Marleen Deblonde

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World Youth Days Cologne 2005

A local organisation committee has been set up and KJG Germany is member of it. KJG is thinking of a big KJG meeting point in Cologne. In the afternoon and evening, they propose to have events and meetings for members of KJG and Fimcap.
The WYD organisation and finances committee is looking for volunteers from all over the world to help preparing the WYD several months before and during the WYD. Accommodation and food are free.

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III World Social Forum

"ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE"

Quite often, in people’s life, some things leave a print. This happens especially during moments in which, on our watches it seems that hours, minutes, seconds… are going more quickly than normal. This is was what I experienced in Porto Alegre, a city in the south of Brazil where the third world social Forum took place.

Certainly, I can say that to me, Jaime Muñoz, a Chilean man, there is one before and one after Porto Alegre. What I lived goes further than only being the person officially representing an organisation, such as Fimcap. What I lived goes further than labels, races, political ideologies, sovereignties. All of us who were present in the summit of the civil society, were citizens of the world, with a common point: we are all persons who believe that humanity can be built up in a different way. Moreover, this was the aim of our work during the seven days. There were five different thematic subjects, some testimonies of people who, day by day fight against inequality, some seminars and a multitude of activities, which made that the world meeting really alive, and at the same time spreaded out an answer to the actual problems of humanity.

I don’t know how to express the happiness that you can feel when you see, for instance, Israeli and Palestinian people, embrace each other, after reading a public declaration in favour of peace in between their own nations. It is impossible not to feel deeply moved after listening to the testimony of a woman who is grew up in the middle of extreme poverty, and because of her faith and her courage, she was able to become what she is nowadays, a minister of Brazilian government. These things are not always present in the mass media.

Fimcap at one point took the floor...

“We also think that a better world for children is possible”. These were my first words when I introduced our organisation in one of the thematic forums about the ‘Rights of children to have an integral development in society’.

People who were present the thought it was very positive that we as FIMCAP, although we are an international organisation, we do not globalise: on the contrary we respect each others identity and each culture, and we work in favour of the growing up of the different organisations in the different countries.

In addition to the moments in which I was sharing experiences because I was the delegate of an organisation, I also had many moments in which I could share personal experiences and feelings. I’m not able to express the enriching experience I got from these personal contacts: I made new friends, I managed to get to know them, to grasp their fears, their projects, … in a few words, I could realize that we all want to build up a more fair society, a more human society. This is our commitment. And you should always remember: “First of all, there will be a clamour coming from the crowd, deeply shouting, words which come from the spirit and they are the major dream of everybody… of all of us who want that at the end there will be not only songs, not only nice speeches, …. For sure if we all push, it will grow up… and we will call it peace.”

Sincerely yours,
Jaime A. Muñoz

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Fimcap collaborators at Kipdorp!

This Link edition wants to present you some people who are working for Link at the Fimcap office at Kipdorp, Antwerp. We would like to thank them for their friendliness, reliability and flexibility.

Jan Van Bostraeten , doing the layout of Link in the three languages, combining the pictures and the text provided by the team.

Francoise Debecker............. is copying, folding, labelling envelopes and sending three languages versions of Link in all parts of the world.

Ingrid Hertogs, expert bookkeeper for the Finances of Fimcap

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News of Sierra Leone

Present situation
Efforts were put in place to salvage the fragile peace. The rebels were slow to fulfil their part of the various peace agreements. The government has to swallow a bitter pill by incorporating the revel and the disgruntled army leadership into its administration.
Due to the many problems and very limited resources, there is so much to be done and unless these receive urgent and immediate attention, the hard won peace will be at jeopardy. There are problems of drug addicts, war affected children, child soldiers who still see themselves as commanding officers in the battle fronts, war victims who are incapacitated, the issue of the housing, the repatriation and resettlement of people.
It is much easier to fight than to deal with the problem after the war. There is a cry for basic human needs, like housing, good health care, food, job opportunities, securities... The renewed crisis in Liberia and Ivory coast are also a worry and a threat to the peace of Sierra Leone.

CYO Sierra Leone:
Like all youths, the catholic youths have suffered the same fate as a lot of youths in Sierra Leone. Apart from the physical damages, the repercussions of conflicts are grave. In most cases violence and conflict rob youth of their rights, life, education, healthcare and security. On the area of education many children and youth lived throughout the eleven years war without ever seeing the classroom thereby making their future bleak. Girls were more victims of this case leading to early pregnancy and engaging in prostitution. Youth programmes are poorly supported and in most cases may not offe4r much hope in terms of opening employment and income opportunities. Some youth during the war became instruments of terror. Against their wish, they were forced to fight, kill, mutilate and destroy properties.
Because of drugs, some youths could not be controlled, not even by their leaders who were using them to fight the war. The gun became their credit card.

Youth work in the country almost came to a standstill. However, several initiatives were taken . On parish level seminars and workshops were organised to educate the youth against violence, several peace education programmes were carried out, the dangers of drugs and prostitution highlighted. Efforts are also being made by some youth to learn some skills so as to become self-employed while others are doing their best to get education.
The youth in Sierra Leone will need financial, material and technological assistance to solve their problems, through educational, awareness programmes, through workshops on trauma healing, peace and reconciliation, HIV/Aids pandemic, support to train leaders, proper structures and co-ordinators. The youth need to be given chances to build their lives and their nation so as to bring their ugly story to an end.

Daniel Osei Yeboah, C.S.Sp
Vice President Fimcap Africa.

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Some News from Kiwo Haiti

A former Chiro leader, Ruth Vandekerkhove paid a visit to “Kiwo ayity” in October 2002 and this is the latest information about our sister organisation in Haiti. She was welcomed by the new national Chaplain, Jean De Dieu, and met other members of the national team like. Frandz the national secretary. There are about 20 people working as volunteers on a national level.

Kiwo is the biggest movement in the country, about 60.000 members in 600 groups, and close to the Church. Each parish has a Kiwo Group. Most of the members are coming from underprivileged social classes. Kiwo accepts also very young children (three years old and above) It is not possible to gather all leaders for training sessions or national meetings. Seminars and training courses are organised in the different regions. This is the strongest part of the Kiwo work: “How to become a good Kiwo leader and a good Christian”.

They have summer camps of one or two weeks, and organise many feasts and celebrations, mainly linked with church feasts or anniversaries. Kiwo is working on different themes: social, political and religious. They do not take any political position, but try to make leaders and members aware of social injustices. They work also on alphabetisation. The authorities appreciate the work of Kiwo, but there is no money to support Kiwo financially.

Kiwo Haiti is very interested in collaborating and exchanging experiences on international level, but they can not afford to participate in international meetings because of lack of money.

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eRko

“Ahojte priatelia!” Hello friends! I would like to introduce you to eRko – Catholic Children Communities Movement from Slovakia in Europe. We have been in touch with Fimcap Europe some years ago, but now we decided to be closer to You, to help Fimcap spread its aims and ideas. So who are we? eRko was created in 1990 after the fall of communism in Slovakia. Our aim is to walk through the path of life in joy together both leaders and children and to discover the Gospel in everyday life. Our children communities meet weekly during the year with their leaders and they make summer camps during the summer. We have also some specific eRko - activities during the year like ‘Days of Joy’, ‘pro-life activities’, ‘Children Deed of Help’, ‘Switch off TV – Switch on Yourself’, and of course ‘Good News Action’ (Christmas carols singing, connected with collections for Africa). Another important resource is our children magazine “Rebrík” (Ladder).

eRko is the second biggest children and youth organisation in Slovakia, it has about 6000 children and 1500 leaders in all parts of our beautiful country. We are here for children and they are here for us. We can learn a lot from children. They motivate us not to be lazy. They have their clear children sight. They don’t speculate as adults, You know how they reason: Is this OK? Oh, I know, maybe there is something wrong, but.. For this time, it’s the last time I am tricking... Children’s thinking is as clear as the words of the Gospel. No wonder, that Jesus said: ‘If you are not like children, you will not reach Heavenly Kingdom.

That’s why young leaders decide to spend time with children. It’s the way how to be closer to the Heaven. I wish you to see things like children, I wish you a nice day with Lord.

Juraj
(contact eRko - person on Fimcap, dury@post.sk)

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Euro Class

A training programme for youth leaders organised by the Danish organisation FDF together with Fimcap and European Fellowship. The participants come from Hungary, Romania, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ukraine.

Practical training with Euroclass in Chiro Vlaanderen: Here is the experience of Dasha, at the Chiro office in Antwerp.

Hi, I am Dasha, I come from Ukraine and thanks to Euroclass, I have had the opportunity to work for three months as a volunteer for Chiro Vlaanderen. I am member of Compass club, a youth organisation in Ukraine. It is a youth centre for children and youngsters in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. There are 90 leaders and about 700 children and youngsters are participating. Even if we are a rather small organisation, we organise lots of activities, also after school.

The overall goal of EuroClass students during voluntary stays was first of all to make new contacts but also to exchange experience and to learn something new.
During the three months I participated in Chiro meetings of all kind – meetings of the International Committee, the working groups South Africa and Europe etc. I also took part in trainings on intercultural learning. I did also some work for the International Secretary of FIMCAP like reports, application forms for the World Camp and co-organizing meetings.. Besides Chiro I managed to visit 5 more youth organizations in the Flanders, including the Youth Council. and on weekends I participated as a leader in the local Chiro group - Woka in Wommelgem where we had "working meetings" every Friday, and activities with members on Sunday. I have participated at least once in every age group, bringing in some games or activities I knew before or learning some Dutch games.

Dasha Zubchenko,
EuroClass student

In the Netherlands:

Zoli and Bali were two Hungarian participants of Euroclass volunteers at Jong Nederland.

Our experience started with a long stay in Silkeborg, at a Danish “Hojskole”, for a training course with different skills like project management, organisation of events, leading games and activities, techniques to hold meetings and to give speeches. We had a lot of fun and interesting exchanges with the other people of the school. Nearly all costs were taken up by the Council of Europe and the youth organisations mentioned above.

The first part of Euroclass passed by very quickly. Some people went home for the Christmas holidays, but we had no time to feel home sick. Everything was very interesting. In January, people were sent to different countries of Europe and we “won” a stay in the Netherlands. Yes for us it was like winning the stay because we were so excited. We were hosted by guests families, for one or two weeks, and this gave us the opportunity to meet more people. We went to the evening activities of the local Jong Nederland groups, where the leaders and the children welcomed us warmly. We have made many new friends.

We also had the opportunity to travel around in the Netherlands, and visited different towns, like Amsterdam, Hertogenbosch and Utrecht where we had lots of interesting activities. Our job was to learn about Jong Nederland on local and regional level, and to take part in the international work. I set up a data base for games on the Website of Fimcap and Jong Nederland. And Zoli worked for the Euroforum.

We will go back to Denmark at the beginning of April where we will evaluate and exchange our experiences.

A new group will start in August, if you are interested contact your organisation, and you can consult the home page http://student.euroclass.org for more information.

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New gamesbook

Jong Nederland, the Fimcap organisation in the Netherlands, has just published a new gamesbook. The games described in it are from all over the world. There are games from Iran, Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Sudan, Yemen, the Moluccas, Sierra Leone, the Netherlands and China. The book itself is also a game. On each page there is a detail of a picture. The reader has to figure out where the detail comes from.

The booklet has been made with the help of many young people from all over the world. Jong Nederland has a partnership with a Moluccan youth organisation in the Netherlands which gave them some very nice games. However they also worked together with an organisation for young refugees. Some young people who fled from their countries came together on a regular basis and met Dutch youngsters. It was an opportunity which encouraged them getting their mind off difficulties they are facing in their daily lives. Jong Nederland went to two of these meetings and organised a programme around play and games.

After a short introduction the participants sat together and had a short circle game. This was a way how the ice was broken between the different participants. The group was split in little groups and each group was asked to gather as many different games from their youth as possible. Participants had to go back to their own youth and think about the games they played as children. For many people this meant a nice trip, back to the times when they only had to play to have a good time. Afterwards they made a selection and each group prepared a game from one of the countries. This turned out to be a lot of fun. All participants were very enthusiastic about all the games. They could not stop even after the official programme was already finished. Many of the games that were played, have been brought together in the games book. A nice resource for animators who would like their children to experience games from all over the world.

Corno de Mol

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ZAK Hal Tarxien- Malta’s youth group of the Year 2002

ZAK Hal Tarxien won this year’s National Youth in Society Award in Malta and thus declared Malta’s youth group of the year 2002.

ZAK Hal Tarxien is part of ZAK Maltafrom the small village of Hal Tarxien (population: around 8000). The group took various initiatives during last year, which varied from youth work among younger youth, socio-cultural initiatives and also religious activities. Consequently, the Department of Youth and Culture decided to award the Hal Tarxien Youth Group with the National Youth in Society Award- which is an award given on an annual basis to the youth group with most evidence of voluntary initiative during that year.

The award was presented by the Parliamentary Secretary in the Education Ministry, Jesmond Mugliett, during a recent ceremony.

Josef Debono
ZAK Malta

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