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This is the on-line version of Link, the bimonthly newsletter of Fimcap.

Edition April 2005

General Information

Calendar [top]

A great example [top]

Pope John Paul II died on 2 April 2005. The world has lost a great personality; the young people have lost a friend. In his first "Redemptor hominis" (March 1979), he encouraged the youth of the world to take up responsibility in Church and society. In all meetings with young people he asked them to work for a new civilisation of love and justice. Pope John Paul II managed to motivate young people for the Church in a period of lack of orientation. His social commitment, his political acting and charitable work impressed the young generation and so many others all over the world.
Let us pray and thank God for this great example.

Fimcap Presidium

KJG, Fimcap and WYD! [top]

Here we go!

Preparations for the World Youth Day are getting more concrete. Fimcap organisations will come to Cologne from all over the world.

“We are expecting about 130 guests from different Fimcap-organisations such as ZAK in Malta, CCCCCE in Spain, CYO Sierra Leone, the Congolese Kiro as well as non-associated organisations from Lithuania and Hungary”, says Markus Veith from the WYD's planning. The KJG Bad Mergentheim is one of two KJG groups who will welcome Fimcap-guests during the WYD. The other one is the KJG Limburg. In Limburg around 100 guests will come from countries like the Netherlands, Namibia, Haiti as well as Slovakia, Belgium or South Africa. Regina Weleda, referent and planning group’s leader in Limburg, is really looking forward to meet all these new people, to get to know foreign cultures and other ways of faith and spirit.

The preparation activities in Limburg as well as in Bad Mergentheim are running smoothly. According to Markus and Regina there are no major difficulties apart from slight organisational challenges regarding finances and translation. However this is not the same in other parts of the world. “Yes, we do have problems”, admits Didier from Chiro in Congo. “Young people between 12 and 35 do not have a passport. Therefore it can be quite complicated to receive a visa from the embassy. Another big problem is of course the financing of the travel”

Father Alex from Haiti reports similar problems: “Due to this we are not sure whether all those who want to go to Cologne will be able to do so”. He continued by saying that it seems ironic that Christian political parties in Germany are arguing against laxity in issuing visas. Unfortunately, this is not all. In Haiti there are still armed fights among the police, supporters of the contested president Aristide, UN-forces and criminals. Just a couple of weeks ago, on February 19th, more than hundred criminals broke out of the central prison in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital. “We wanted to organise a big encounter for all young people in the diocese of Port-au-Prince who are interested in the WYD but because of the political insecurity we decided to arrange many different meetings in each parish”, says Father Alex. Yet, despite all setbacks, everybody is looking forward to encounter the German culture, church, spirit and the reality of youth work, particularly the KJG-work. Juraj Kralik from the Slovakian eRko will travel to Limburg and hopes "to experience KJG local group work". Regardless of the different problems in the preliminary stage of the WYD, many participants already admitted their touristic interests. Juraj says, “We don’t have any special wishes where to go or what to see, but of course we would be pleased if we were offered some interesting sightseeing”. Regina and Markus are aware of this and say that trips to Würzburg, Rothenburg, the Hessenpark, etc are part of the programme and will offer an impressive insight into the culture and history of Hessen, as well as typical KJG-activities like cross-country-games, social engagement – building a playground or an afternoon in an old people’s home – and, of course, parties. Sierra Leonians have expressed a special interest to visit German industry plants. But, on the other hand, "We don’t want to present just German culture", Regina points out, "there should be the opportunity for intercultural exchange for everybody, including us. We want to learn as well.”

The WYD is a big spiritual event and therefore crucially important for Fimcap and the participating associations. Contacts among the group leaders could be built up, renewed or strengthened. Fimcap has been present on the WYD from Manila to Toronto. Alveiro Vasquez remarks: “We have done many activities during these WYD gatherings but I think in this case Fimcap will be more present than ever – thanks to KJG.”

Regarding the spiritual aim of WYD, Fimcap Chaplain, Alveiro Vasquez underlines the main target of the WYD: “Worship our Lord Jesus Christ, learn from each other and commit ourselves to make this world a better place day by day.” Alveiro adds “The WYD can not be seen as a success if we all go back home as the same ones as we have come to Cologne. Like the Three Kings we should go to Cologne, find our Lord Jesus Christ and go back with the good news to our local groups.”

Ansgar Jüchter and Johanna Elsässer

From Porto Alegre to the World [top]

Where the ideas are turned into action

On 31 January 2005 the Social World Forum that gathered more than 155 thousand participants ended with the following definitions for 2006 and 2007. It was decided that in 2006 the Social World Forum will take place in several parts of the world, in a decentralised form and in 2007 it will be in Africa. This multinational meeting of the civil society started in 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, except for last year, when it was in Mumbai, India, as a first attempt to expand its influence to other regions. Due to this success the organisers decided to change the modality for the next year and have as many simultaneous fora as possible in "key places of the world". The southern Committee of the FSM approved to propose Venezuela as hosting country for the next encounter, although this must be ratified by the International Committee that will meet at the beginning April in Paris.
Although decentralised, it will still be in January, at the same time and in opposition to the World-wide Economic Forum: a meeting of governments, industrialists and investors in the Swiss tourist city of Davos.

The assembly of the social movements put forward two views of the Forum. On one side, the organisers want to keep the forum as a place for debate and on the other side; the movements support the preparation of an agenda of proposals and actions against the “empire”.

A manifesto was written to reduce the external public debt of the Latin American countries and to tax speculative financial transactions. In addition amongst other points, they proposed the promotion of fair trade and the elimination of privileged oases. Although the Forum did not publish conclusions and although the adherents clarified that the "Manifesto of Porto Alegre", which consisted of twelve points, was "strictly personal", the document became the synthesis of the global encounter. It was signed by Nobel Prize for Peace 1980, Adolph Perez Esquivel; the Nobel Prize for Literature Jose Saramago; the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, the writer and Brazilian theologian Fray Betto and the journalist and French activist, Ignacio Ramonet, among others. These intellectual people think that it is necessary to eliminate "the public debt of the Southern countries; debt that already has been paid several times and that allows the rich States, the financial establishments and the international financial institutions to put most of the humanity under their trusteeship and to maintain it in the misery".

The "Manifesto of Porto Alegre" considered that since the first forum in 2001, the encounter was "a world-wide public space of citizenship and its struggles", that spread "to all the continents and transformed itself into a force the whole planet has to deal with” a planetary force with people of 135 countries that participated in 2500 activities. This year there was also an increase of thematic axes to deal with and many proposals for the construction of other worlds were put forward and also FIMCAP had a space to present our hopes for a new world. As expected, the forum ended in the streets. 50,000 people marched in the territory reserved to the Social World-wide forum, reserved for the activities of the FSM, under the motto "Against the ALCA (Area of Free Commerce of the Americas) and for independent integration".

Jaime Muñoz M.
Fimcap Latin America

Africa

CYO Ghana [top]

Catholic Youth Organisation of Ghana is doing fine. After leaving Sierra Leone last year, l took some time to visit the National Office of C.Y.O Ghana. l had twice a meeting with the Secretary General, Senior Crusader Victor Quaye Foli who has served in that capacity for many years. He is still active and very committed to working with and for the youth.

C.Y.O Ghana encountered some difficulties during the past year. Their National Chaplain went abroad for studies and will not return to his post after his studies. The roof of the National Office was blown off by the wind and up till now it is not re-roofed due to financial problems. This has resulted to their being disconnected from the electricity; the centre is being deteriorated due to the rains that pour directly in the building. The office equipments are not being used due to these problems and may get destroyed. Local fundraising to repair and re-roof the centre is slow and will need further assistance.

The good news about Ghana C.Y.O is that they have received a brand new TOYOTA HILUX 4WD through the sponsorship of MIVA-Austria. (with the help of Franz Denné, former vice-president (1975-77) and president of Fimcap (1977-1986).
With this help much co-ordination work can be done to promote the growth of the organisation.

C.Y.O Ghana together with other youth are preparing for the World Youth Day. A grand launching was made and the youth had series of activities to get themselves prepared for the coming WYD to be held in Cologne. Among other intended programs is the National Camp that will take place in October, 2005. We wish them God’s blessings and hope they will be able to sort out their problem at the centre.

Fr. Daniel Osei Yeboah, C.S.SP
Vice-President, Fimcap Africa

CYO Ghana Peace Walk [top]

The Saint Paul’s CYO in the Techiman Parish in the Sunyani Diocese in the Brong-Ahafo Region organised an “Election 2004 Peace walk” on the last weekend of November 2004 and appealed for violence-free elections. The chair of the President should be occupied in a peaceful manner. Any peace-loving Ghanaian wants standards of living to be improved, in peace and stability. All decent-minded people expect that politicians avoid politics of insult but address issues pertaining to the welfare of the people rather than generating tension in the society. Politics is all about development, not a plat-form to start war.

The origin of many wars in the world today start by one’s call and ambition to become the first among the equal (Primus inter peris). When this happens youth become the target for the bloody acts. The children and women are the victims. We know of Angola, Somalia, Uganda, Liberia, Gambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, just to mention but a few.
Ghana is surrounded by only French speaking countries, and this means a lot of Ghanaians will have language problems if we have to run to them for help in times of war. War destroys developments, separates even brothers and sisters, shortens lives of innocent people, brings hatred, pain, hunger and puts people to beg for food.

Dominic Anane Effah
CYO Parish Chairman and Peace Walk co-ordinator

Latin America

News from Kiro Haiti [top]

The movement is doing well in all 9 dioceses. We are still concerned about the situation in the country and we try to keep ourselves informed in order to cope with the difficult situation in Haiti. The political insecurity is all around and the socio-economical situation is really bad. Current events are all about the general elections at the end of 2005. These elections are promising because if they are organised in a transparent way and, if all participate under good security conditions, the outcome will be a new beginning for a just, peaceful and prosperous Haiti.

Concerning Kiro Haiti, we had a national meeting with all representatives of the dioceses 4-8 February 2005 at the Salesians in Port-au-Prince. During this meeting Mgr Joseph Serge Miot, the Archbishop of de Port-au-Prince, showed us the implications of our commitment in Kiro as members of the Church. As an introduction to the next elections, the Youth Director of the Ministry for Youth and Sports and Citizenship, Witchner Romélus, talked to us about education and citizenship. This enabled us to realise the importance of civil rights and duties in our society.

During this meeting, we elected the new national leaders. The new elected national secretary and executive secretary are Pierrogène Dalvimar and Rock César. We warmly thanked Edner Alouidor and Luckner Romulus, the outgoing secretaries, for their commitment in Kiro Haiti. The new committee started to work on 24 February 2005 and its task is to restructure and reinforce the structures of the movement so as to become a significant movement in the Church working for the education of numerous children and youngsters in Kiro.

Concerning the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince, in the frame of the year of the Eucharist, we participated in the celebration of the World Youth Day on 19 March 2005 through numerous youth encounters in the different pastoral units. About 5000 youngsters met to pray, to sing, to share and to worship. The chosen themes were “We have come to adore Him” and “Let us take strength in the Eucharist in order to serve the others following the example of Jesus”.

We are very happy to share this experience of love within the big Fimcap family. We count on your friendship and your prayers. May the revived Lord associate us to the victory of life and of love in our different organisations for our children and youngsters, for a more human world of brotherhood and solidarity.

E-mail addresses: mkiwoayiti101960@yahoo.fr and/or alex_muanamere@hotmail.com

Alexandre Kakolo Beya, cicm
National Chaplain of Kiro Haiti

Europe

European Bureau [top]

From the 11^th to the 13^th of March the European Bureau met in Switzerland. We enjoyed a fruitful meeting whilst outside spring was fighting against winter. The weather changed from rain to snow-storm and ended on Sunday with beautiful sunshine and blue sky.

First of all we heard great news: There is a new organisation which applied for membership: “Facel” from France would like to join Fimcap. We are very happy about this and curious to learn more about them.
There was more interesting news. After a common bureau meeting in Vienna last November, Corno de Mol (the president of Fimcap Europe) went to visit the presidium of our protestant partner organisation “European Fellowship”. He was welcomed very warmly in Finland, where he learned a lot about our sister-organisation.
During the last common meeting of Fimcap Europe and European Fellowship we discussed possible improvements of our biggest common project “EuroClass”. The Danish hosts have worked on these results and presented us a lot of news. You can read about them in the article about EuroClass in this Link.

On Saturday afternoon we discussed deeply different topics. The project proposal for the SMS-Interrail-game 2007 was looked into very carefully. The planning group will try to make the project fit with the ideas of the other organisations.
The delegates also worked on a paper to evaluate activities for better quality control. We discussed the changes of a suggested paper. The work went on well and we hope to finish it at the next meeting.
The last point of discussion was the study theme for the coming Euroconference. We finally decided on the topic “communication”. It is about communication “downwards” to the local members and also “upwards” to other international organisations for example through the European Youth Forum. The theme will be more specified later.

On Sunday at noon we closed our meeting with a celebration and everybody left for home or for a short sightseeing to Zürich. Jungwacht and Blauring Switzerland were happy to host this meeting.

Doris Renggli
Vice-President Fimcap Europe

The new international committee of FOI - Italy [top]

What is the relationship between Italian oratories and FIMCAP or the several different European and non European organisations which work for and with children during their leisure time? What are the concrete medium- and long-term benefits that make noteworthy the commitment and the work in this direction?

In an effort to take up the challenge of a greater openness to the European contacts and to get to know more about European and world youth organisations, the General Secretariat of FOI decided to set up an international committee. This committee will have the task to study ways to encourage parishes and oratories get in touch with other youth organisations out of Italy.
The members of the committee have been chosen within some important regional and diocesan organs: the Milanese Caritas, the regional co-ordinating authority for the dioceses of Lombardy (ODL), the Centre for the Roman oratories (COR), the Foundation for the Milanese oratories (FOM). Some other members are local youth workers and group leaders which also co-operate with the mentioned organisations. Every member was called to share not only his or her personal experience, but also his or her own professionalism: in this way the work of the committee will be able to avail itself of several different competencies in the educational, linguistic, intercultural areas, and also in computer science and fundraising matters.

On a concrete level, we can say that the committee has now three main aims:

• to make a serious reflection of the possible ways of working in the sometimes patchy world of Italian oratories.
• to deepen its knowledge of the organisations that refer to FIMCAP and of the several activities and exchange opportunities that it offers, through the continuous participation of a representative to the Bureau Meeting and to other events.
• to prepare a special page in FOI web site, which will have the name “FOINTERNATIONAL”.

This page is intended to present the committee itself, its work and its aims, but also the work and experience of FIMCAP. We hope that in the future this page may widen and enrich itself thanks to the contributions (papers, pictures, videos…) of all the oratories which will experience enjoyable intercultural moments.

Carla Acerbi
FOI

New opportunities for youth leaders wanting international leader training [top]

A more flexible EuroCLass is being offered to FIMCAP youth leaders the coming year. More European travel, higher flexibility concerning time and commitment as well as new projects is the result of a restructuring of EuroClass. FIMCAP organisations and participating youth leaders have recommended improvements on the basis of the past four years experiences.

EuroCLass is now open to youth leaders who wish to participate for a shorter period than the full project period. Hopefully youth leaders will commit themselves for the full project but participation in only autumn or spring semester is now possible for those who can only spare one semester. The focus in the autumn and spring semesters will cover different areas of voluntary organisational work and European issues which should encourage youth leaders to do the full course if possible.

The flexibility is also in the end of the project as the voluntary stay is no longer placed in the period right after New Year. We discovered that this period was generally a time with little activity going on and several organisations advocated that the voluntary stay should be in the summer time. The length has been cut down as three months in many cases may be too long for both students and organisations. We advertise a voluntary stay of four weeks which in individual cases can be extended if organisations and students should wish so.

“EuroCLass on Tour”

Why not bring EuroCLass out to share inspiration and ideas with youth and leaders in the different FIMCAP organisations. A new initiative is the concept called “EuroCLass on Tour” where the whole group for two weeks will be travelling around to a number of organisations. This will take place in September and in March and we hope many different organisations will be interested in a visit for a number of days.
The program is structured in two semesters each including theoretical and practical learning, travel periods and practical experiences. The autumn and spring semesters are connected but each focusing on different aspects of organisational work. Intercultural learning and organisation understanding are general issues integrated in the entire project.

Autumn semester – 18 weeks

During the autumn semester teaching will have an overall focus on project work involving: project management, international fundraising, communication, organisational activities, democracy and European culture and history.
Travel period A will involve a joint EuroCLass project tour through a number of European countries. The aim will be to research for smaller student projects including filming, visits to organisations and sites, interviews etc.
The autumn period also involves a period of field study of European organisation work, which is an opportunity to gain first hand experiences from foreign organisation work. Students from Western Europe will be travelling to Eastern/Central Europe, and students from Eastern/Central Europe will study different Danish non-governmental organisations.

Spring semester – 24 weeks

Organisational youth work will be the main topic of the spring semester. The teaching will focus on different aspects of national and European organisational youth work including: leader training, development of activities, international co-operation, religion and new inspiration for youth work. Psychology, pedagogy, presentation techniques and dilemmas in youth work will also be dealt with along with preparations for “EuroCLass on tour” and voluntary stay.
A joint tour going around to different European youth organisations presenting different activities and issues of leader training will be the aim of travel period B. The voluntary stay is the culmination of the leader training and a unique opportunity to live in a foreign country while participating in the work and life of a youth organisation. Most often two EuroCLass students will be together during this period, where personal involvement and open minds are the best tools for an unforgettable experience.
We hope your organisations will continue to support our joint leader training initiative by sending participants and hosting students during voluntary stay. Feel free to contact us for further information, more brochures or other questions: mail@euroclass.org.
Check the EuroCLass student homepage for further information: http://www.student.euroclass.org

Morten Skov Mogensen
Project Leader, EuroCLass

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