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LinkThis is the on-line version of Link, the bimonthly newsletter of Fimcap.Edition June 2003
WYD 2005 in CologneThe preparations have started. The usual framework and programme will be kept the same. The theme will be: "We have come to adore Him". Fimcap will work closely with our German member organisation KJG, which is involved in the preparations on the spot. More information will follow in the next Link editions. Bert van den Bossche News of the Catholic Youth Organisation GhanaFuneral announcement Sadly we announce the sudden death of MOST SNR. CR. J. B. YEGBE, the National CYO Chairman for the period 1979-1987. He was 70 years. Most Snr. Cr. J.B.Yegbe was the leader of Ghana CYO that. He was the one who met a few other leaders of other African Federations in 1980 at Bujumbura-Burundi to revive the Afro-Conference, In October 1983 he became its President and organized the IV th AfroConference General Assembly in Adoagyri-Ghana which coincided with the International Youth Year (IYY) He further represented the Ghana CYO at many of the FIMCAP General Assemblies and Intercontinental Bureau meetings in Switzerland, Belgium, France, Britain, Austria, Holland etc. In 1989 he was elected in absentia, Vice President of FIMCAP. He was the first African ever to hold that position and presided over the 17th FIMCAP General Assembly in Belgium in October 1992. In August, 1992 Most Snr. Cr. J.B.Yegbe co-ordinated with Mr. Titus Burgisser of Switzerland the organisation of one of the two first FIMCAP World Camps in Ghana hosted by Ghana CYO. Most. Snr. Cr. J.B.Yegbe‘s last major work for Fimcap was in July, 2001 when he assisted and supported the Ghana CYO to host the 20th FIMCAP General Assembly in Abokobi, Ghana. His total commitment for the Church principally through young people, but especially the Ghana CYO was exceptional till his death in April, 2003. May he rest in peace. National Org. Secretary  News Chiro Southern AfricaThis July there will be two major activities going on in Chiro Southern Africa. Our primary activity will be a two week National Training workshop for diocesan leaders. It will take place from the 30 June-12 July 2003 in Mariannhill, South Africa. Thirty participants are expected. They will live with host families in the community of Mariannridge during their stay. The aim of the training is to empower youth to become effective leaders in their local groups and dioceses. The programme will focus on team building and empowerment of skills. Thus, topics like personal development, leadership and management, project and programme planning and budgeting will be held during the first few days of the first week. The first weekend will be spent at the Wildlife Society. Participants will be exposed to the environment. They will spend time in the bush learning about the environment and discovering ways in which they can implement these skills in their local groups when they return home. The second week will commence with the ABCD programme. A (abstain); B( be faithful), C (Change your behaviour) and D ( Decide what you think is best). This programme will expose young people to HIV/AIDS awareness and further education regarding this issue. Taking into consideration the pandemic of HIV in Southern Africa, leaders need to be skilled so that they can empower themselves as well as other young people with whom they live and work. The last days will focus on First Aid. The South African Red Cross will provide instruction in basic first aid. Upon completion, a certificate will be issued to those participants who pass the examination. At the end of the programme, leaders will be able to return to their dioceses and equip their youth. All leaders will be monitored and supported by the national office throughout the year. The second major activity is the arrival of members of Chiro Vlaanderen. Eleven youth led by two co- ordinators will grace our soil. They will arrive in Cape Town on the 4th July 2003 and will leave from Durban on the 24 July for Belgium. They will reside with local Chiro’s and host families. Their aim is to become immersed in Chiro’s way of life in Southern Africa. Some of the places they will live in are: Upington, Oudtshoorn, Gabarone in Botswana, Klerksdorp, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Ladysmith and Durban. It is here where they will meet with local Chiro groups, visit the towns where local Chiro’s shop and see some wild life where and if possible. The young people from Chiro Vlaanderen will share their experiences, realities, games and way of life with the groups they visit. The exchange would be a wonderful opportunity for both Chiro Southern Africa and Chiro Flanders to learn from each other. It would also add a face to the partnership we already have. We wish all those who are coming a happy and exciting stay.!!!! Shaun Dunn  Visit to ColombiaDuring my stay in Colombia due to an urgent visit to my family, I contacted catholic youth work organisations and associations. I went to the headquarters of CELAM (The Latin -American Bishop’s Conference); where I met P. Armelim de Sousa, who is the executive secretary for the section of the Latin-American youth. We talked the whole morning about the Celam projects on the Latin-American level. For me it was a
big surprise to hear that the people who are in charge of youth work have meetings to work out a
common youth pastoral projects. Last February, they had their 14th Latin-American meeting of the
national responsibles for youth work. The theme of the meeting will be the process of education to
faith like a path that leads and elaborates the project of life. I think this is a great effort done towards
youth work. Alveiro VasquezFimcap Chaplain EuroforumBUREN – The Euroforum 2003 took place in the village Buren between the 29th of May and 1st June. This Dutch village hosted an international Fimcap activity. Participants from all over Europe (Belgium: Chiro and Patro, Jong Nederland, FDF Denmark, Jungschar Austria ,KJG Germany, Ateitis Lituania, eRko, Slovaquia, Zak Malta, CCCCCE Catalynia, Jubla, Switzerland) came to the Netherlands to participate in lots of workshops and other activities and.... to enjoy the nice weather! The sun was shining the whole weekend and brought around temperatures close to 30 degrees Celsius! The theme of the weekend was ‘Time for another, Time for yourself’. The organisation team and the participants are proud of the successful Euroforum. The participants arrived on the 29th in Buren. The programme started at noon since nearly everybody
was present. After the opening, there was time to get to know each other with ice-breaking games.
Afterwards, the participants went to their workshops to start with the next part of the Euroforum
programme. After breakfast on Friday, the participants were divided in two groups. One group continued in the workshops and enjoyed African dancing, outdoor life, big games, tolerant times, theatre and “back to basics” The other group took part in a walk “Anna van Buren-tocht” through Buren with many activities. On Friday evening, the different countries presented themselves and the participants presented specialities, snacks and drinks from their country. Everybody could get acquainted with customs from participants from other countries. The evening ended with a pleasant feast. People were not very keen on getting up on Saturday morning, because the feast ended very late.
Nevertheless, the workshops started on time. The closing of the Euroforum was on Sunday. Everybody received a souvenir of the Euroforum and soon it was time to leave. The Euroforum was a big success, not only due to the enthusiastic participants from Europe but also to the great number of volunteers, especially the Jong Nederland section from Buren. Marcel Posthumus  Preparation Weekend for the World CampOn the 11th, 12th and 13th April, there was a meeting for the world camp participants: 5 from Belgium (Chiro) and 3 from the Netherlands (Jong Nederland). Here is the experience of one of the participants: We all arrived in Waasmunster Belgium, on Friday evening around 8 o’clock. After a short introduction with a presentation of a video about the Philippines, we started our first activity: a game about solidarity. We all had to pick a card with a name of a country. Some people had the name of a rich country; some of us had bad luck and picked a very poor country. The aim of the game was that everyone should be able to move to a richer country, because otherwise you could die of hunger. We could do this individually, all together, or you could help the others if you were already safe. At the end of the game, it was clear that not everybody could survive and choices had to be made about who whom we were going to save. It was very obvious (though also a bit alarming) that the ones who were rich and safe, had to decide about the life of the others. The poor people had nothing to say and they had to face their destiny… We nevertheless had a lot of fun during the game (for instance with the task to send each other Morse codes). We spent the rest of the evening around a table, talking and drinking to get to know each other a little bit better. At that time I was already looking forward to going to the Philippines, it was clear that I liked this group of people. The second day started with an introduction into other cultures. We had a morning of intercultural learning. I learned (and I think the others did so to) that we use the values of our own culture to judge people around us and this is not always fair, because people from other countries have other values and live in a different way. We even walked into an other culture (one that was invented) and I found out that when we are in a culture we don’t know, it can be very weird because we feel very uncomfortable. In the afternoon, Zeger came to give us some information about the world camp. He brought some very nice pictures from the Philippines (which made me even more inpatient). Then, some Filipino people told us a bit more about their country, the nice people, the eating habits, I found it very interesting...! Later, we had a look at the pictures of the last world camp. Some had also participated in the last world camp in Paraguay and they brought some very nice photos and told enthusiastic stories. In the evening , after having the singing hour (witch was very funny, some of us are really talented!) we played the Pablo game. (It is based on the game of Lord of the rings). In this game, you all had to work together to save Pablo. It’s a board game, not easy, but if you’re not to tired, it’s nice to play. We had a lot of fun. The next day, and also the last day, we made some arrangements for the camp, who was going to
take care of what and Corno told us a bit more about Fimcap.. And then, the time had come to say
goodbye…. Grietje Cant,  Fundraising WorldcampJong Nederland and someone from Chiro Flanders came together on the 29th and the 30th of April. Throughout these days the people in the Netherlands celebrate Queensday, the birthday of the Dutch queen. On Queensday the whole nation has a day off from work and school and celebrates. In several bigger cities people organise a gigantic free market. Everybody can sell stuff without paying taxes for it. The whole evening and night and the following day people are on the streets playing music, selling stuff and having a lot of fun. A perfect day to try to raise money for the World camp. One of the Dutch participants of the World camp lives right in the middle of the area where the free market in Utrecht is being organised. We collected different booklets and games from the Jong Nederland shop and a lot of other things to sell. We also opened a toilet. This turned out to be a big success. People could visit the toilet for € 0,50 and experience an adventurous toilet visit. First they had to step over an obstacle and then they had to follow the clues in the house to find the toilet. Of course we decorated the toilet with all kinds of funny stuff. Throughout the evening there was a queue with people waiting. But they could kill time by doing some silly games. This toilet action alone made about € 250,- A lot of people were very happy to use the toilet because it was kept very clean and smelled fresh all the time, unlike the public toilets that were provided. By selling the stuff we raised another € 80,- During the second day the whole celebration was washed off from the streets. It started raining so much that most people decided to celebrate Queensday somewhere indoors. So, the second day didn’t have big results. But overall we are very satisfied with the action. We had a lot of fun that day and even raised some money for the World camp. Corno, Yvette, Karen and a lot of other volunteers EuroclassThe last 6 weeks All Euroclass participants came back from the countries where they had been on practical training
However boring or frustrating it had sometimes been, people could now see the funny sides of this
experience. On the whole, it had been a great time. After an evaluation of the practical training, we
could start our final project. We often laughed when the trainer asked if there is a life “after Euroclass” Now I am very busy looking for an answer. I am home again, in the Netherlands. My body is at home, my thoughts are in Denmark. I am busy looking for a place to put the Euroclass things and memories, most importantly the certificate about the things we learned: logistics, project management, etc. Yet the certificate doesn’t say anything about the many things we learned, not even about the Hungarian goulash, the independence of Switzerland, the Romanian Vampires, Danish drinking, religiosity in Latvia , tolerance and intercultural differences.. All this impressed us much more than anything else. There are1001 things to talk about... I hope I could explain a bit what Euroclass has been. ‘Education
and training for life’. That ‘s it, really! Melanie Jeuken,  Visit to eRko3 - 8 April 2003 I participated at a seminar organised by the NGO DOBRÁ NOVINA in Slovakia (Solidarity in action of the eRko children). It was a weekend seminar about “the house of the poor“. Many youth leaders of all dioceses of Slovakia participated. It was a good opportunity to present Fimcap to the group leaders, and the activities Fimcap realises on both European and international level. Two people from the Austrian Jungschar Dreikönigsaktion, Peter and Angela Kemper, who spent 6 years in a community in Brazil, participated as well. During the seminar, they shared their experiences and described the life of children in Brazil. I also took the opportunity to meet the national team of eRko, the Youth Council of Slovakia, to visit some parishes and to meet people who are in some way involved in eRko or support eRko. The meeting with the president and the secretary of eRko was very interesting. They explained their structure, their way of working, the activities of the organisation. We also talked about their expectations, hopes and difficulties.. We also examined possible projects between eRko and Fimcap. Alveiro, |
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of humans is a permanent challenge. The world has gone through so many wars! The
two World Wars brought around slaughters and incredible massacres, and were an awesome
experience for the individuals themselves. While people still think over the democratic legitimacy, war
remains the very last and sometimes “legitimate” means to settle down conflict. However I think that
wars which are won with weapons are just an ephemeral victory that can only be consolidated by a
vast campaign against injustice and the restoration of peace through truth, justice, forgiveness and
reconciliation. Many people have been writing on the challenge to building humanity. Classical wars
seem to belong to the past. Wars, presented by the media, show films of combats that make one
forget how terrible a war is for the people really affected. The war in Rwanda in 1994, in Burundi since
1993, in Sierra Leone, in RDC, in the Middle East, in Iraq (2003!) were strongly presented by the
media but the only thing we remember is that people were determined to kill their brothers and sisters.
The technological progress of the 20th century made people hope for the creation of a “planet village”.
Conflicts are natural and fundamentally social because we were born different. The respect of the
differences between the humans, the populations and the nations will remain the legitimate criteria for
any theory against war. We sympathised with the big manifestations against the war in Iraq. I am sure
many Fimcap youngsters have participated in these, especially in Europe and Asia. In Africa,
participation was poor, because Africa has experienced similar atrocities, due to the bad
administration of so many governments. You cannot build humanity with canons, missiles and other
deadly weapons that have been used recently or in the past. Yet the question is about the involvement
of geopolitical elements, macro-economy, military competition both on international level as well as the
huge sector of international relationship. However I would like to stress the essential point and to invite
each member of our big Fimcap family to become conscious of the pains of the young Iraqi; of
mothers killed by bombs while carrying their children; fathers feeling lost as they couldn’t do anything
against this disaster; and of the grieving relatives and friends of the soldiers who died for their country.
It is not enough to have compassion with them. I would like to go back to Africa to express my idea in
a better way. Incredible atrocities are happening daily without getting any reaction from the other
nations because the implications are too insignificant. Some of these atrocities are no longer part of
“normal” armed conflicts. I am talking of cannibalism, sexual abuse committed by the soldiers, the
increasing number of raped women and girls during armed conflicts, double criminality (as the rape
often implies a contamination with the HIV virus), uttermost cynical atrocities (mutilations and other
outrages acts against humanity), and genocides as complete village populations get massacred in
revenge or in previously planned operations.