(ANS – Jorhat) – The Institution for Culture And Rural Development (I-CARD), organized a course in leadership skills training from 9th to 11th March 2015. Three students of Leeds Becket University, UK, Miss Olivia Cowood, Mr. John Jones Ryan and Mr. Isidoros Lapsatis, kept the 40 participants busy with physically and mentally engaging games and group activities. Daniel Brunen of Germany, a Don Bosco volunteer, joined the trainers’ team.

The participants, all school dropouts and educated unemployed youth, hailed from Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Sivasagar districts of Assam. They were all leaders of “Young Misings Association”, a unique Salesian Youth Movement, under I-CARD.

All three days began with social service, cleaning Lichubari market area, and Mother Teresa Nirmal Hriday. It was both a service to society and a model to be taken back to their homes, encouraging community service, hygiene and safe environment.

In the half hour meditation about Don Bosco’s childhood days, Fr. Thomas Mulayinkal , SDB, Rector and Founder of I-Card, invited the youth to be links between poverty and development, like Don Bosco.

Fr. Mulayinkal each day talked about five aspects around which one can engage in social work, viz: Culture, Health, Education, Economy, Radiance and Sincerity (CHEERS), and about five rules of life: be a servant leader, keep learning, be professional, focus on the goal and take others along. Internal transformation, he said, is an essential pre-requisite for building the external image of every community.

The visiting students of Leeds University started the first day with a self evaluation session. They used mind mapping to teach leadership skills. The participants competed to build the highest and strongest tower with newspapers.  Other topics that they discussed were: confidence building, public speaking, self-organization as a professional leader, and  motivation and self esteem. One could see visible changes in the attitude and behaviour of the young from day one to day three.

On 10th March, Rev. Fabio Attard, the General Councillor for Youth, visited I-Card and praised this work for youngsters who are out of the main stream.

Fr. Mulayinkal , in his concluding address, said that the training helped the youth to “learn to swim in the pool of life.”  Migom Mrinal, a youth leader, said: “we will take our new learning to the villages, and we will bring change and development”.

I-CARD has 420 tribal youth groups in as many villages, covering 11 districts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

Published 17/03/2015