(ANS - Rome) - A meeting of the enlarged Council of the Don Bosco Network (DBN) was held at the Generalate on 9 - 10 January. Three sessions were held each day for the different working groups to take advantage of the simultaneous presence of various leaders.

On the morning of 10 January there was a meeting of the Working Group of the DBN for Advocacy. The participants included eight members of the DBN, Fr Fabio Attard, Councillor for Youth Ministry of the Salesians and Sr. Maria Luisa Miranda, Councillor for the Salesian Family of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA) and several other Salesians, FMA and representatives of Salesian organizations in international fora, a total of 22 people.

Each organization shared their best practices and particular emphasis was placed on the themes of youth empowerment, vocational training and continuing education for Human Rights of the Child. In the future we plan to strengthen the exchange of good practices, especially among the offices at the various locations of the United Nations, with a meeting planned for the month of January 2015.

On the afternoon of the same day the working group of the DBN invited the Economer General of the Salesians, Bro. Jean Paul Muller, and the Regional Councillor for Africa and Madagascar, Fr Guillermo Basañes, to address the issue of the Planning and Development Office (PDO), particularly in view of the Project for Training and Collaboration of the PDOs established by the European Union for International Voluntary Service for Development (in collaboration with other DBN members) for 36 African countries. To this end, a first meeting is expected as early as next March 15.

Three PDOs have been identified - two in Asia and one in Europe - in provinces where the sustainability of the mission is a cause for concern.  The recent publication in Portuguese and French of the Proceedings of the Seminar on PDO (Hyderabad, 2011) can be seen as an incentive to continue on this path.

Coordination for Humanitarian Emergencies in recent months – in the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Philippines - was the theme of the third meeting of the Council expanded to include the Bursar General and some non-members. The new coordinator of the DBN, Mr Wojciech Mroczek, analyzed and praised the work dynamic and the coordination in the past four months.  The final draft of the Guidelines in Cases of Emergency was also studied.

The expanded Council of the DBN also updated the work in preparation for EXPO 2015 in Milan and presented the new website of the institution - www.donbosconetwork.org – and continued its work of research on the fifty-two Provincial PDOs in the Congregation in 2013, and laid the groundwork for the next General Assembly (Rome, 15 - 16 May).

Published 21/01/2013