(ANS – Jorhat) – The Institute for Culture and Rural Development (I-CARD), based in Jorhat, Assam, India, organised a special event for Don Bosco's feast day on 31 January for media agencies in the north east.

Six newspapers and local magazines took part in the event – The Ecletic, The Assam Tribune, Eastern Chronicle, Jan Sadharan, Asomiya Khabar and Amar Oxom –  who came together at the Don Bosco-Life Plus campus to celebrate and honour Don Bosco on the 125 anniversary of his death. They recognised his great capacity for media.

“The gathering aimed at rendering homage to Don Bosco, a Saint who was a media giant” said Fr Thomas Kalapurackal, sdb, founder and director of I-CARD. Celebrations began with a cultural programme, run by Mrs Puspalata Mili, a young woman who had left school but then took it up again and finished up with a Masters in communication and journalism

After highlighting Don Bosco's contribution to media Fr Kalapurackal invited the various professionals present think how media can foster development rather than just mirroring what is happening. He emphasised how it is necessary for media to move from just being passive spectators, often focused on negative dimensions of reality, to being proactive agents of development in the community.

The director of I-CARD also promised to the Salesian structures and possibilities at I-CARD available to media professionals who wanted to conduct workshops or formation programmes. “I-CARD would be very proud to collaborate in helping inforamtion media in this region to be more professional and up to date”.

Mr Suryya Kr Chetia from the Assam Tribune, along with other professionals, showed certain interest in the idea of starting up an information agency in Jorhat to cover the Upper Assam region. “I-CARD could be an ideal base: with its 350 young Misings (local tribe) groups spread around villages in 8 districts throughout Assam and 3 in Arunachal Pradesh, it would be a perfectly suitable 'galaxy' for gathering and distributing news” Fr Kalapurackal said.

Meanwhile the Salesians are setting up an audio-video and radio studio there for the community, tools that can be a support platform for the hypothetical news agency.

The celebrations on the day continued with a cultural programme produced by young Misings and an offer of typical local cuisine.

Published 05/02/2013