The speakers were
Guido Barbera, president of VIDES International, Eugenio Melandri, Italian
activist and politician, European parliamentarian, Co-founder of different
associations and director of the magazine ”Solidarietá Internazionale”, Fabio
Attard, Salesian’s international responsible of Youth Ministry, Sr. MariaGrazia
Caputo, founder of VIDES and main representative to the UN at the IIMA Human
Rigths Office in Geneva, Sr. Runita Borja, Councilor
for Youth Ministry and four
VIDES ex-volunteers.
Under the thematic “In
which world am I living?” Guido Barbera and Sr. MariaGrazia Caputo opened the
seminar.
Mr. Barbera strongly criticized modern society and the
absence of an active civil society fighting for its fundamental rights. In the
same way, he criticized governments who talk about migrants and poverty but do
nothing to address these issues. In fact, only 12% of the European countries
consider poverty and civil society activities as a priority to invest in.
Sr. MariaGrazia explained how the people who lead the world handle
these problems. She stressed the great importance of the participation of the
NGOs in the Human Rights Council because they are the ones who speak for those
who are not being heard by governments and who address many fundamental issues
that otherwise would remain unnoticed.
To introduce the
thematic “Which kind of volunteering do we have in this world?” Eugenio
Melandri said that the four most important verbs in volunteering are: see,
listen, know and act. First, nowadays thanks to social media, we are reached by
many images and news from all across the world. For this reason, we should allow
ourselves to be touched, to not remain indifferent but to read with critical
eyes the information we receive.
Second, we need to
enter the communities and listen to the victims and consequences of what is happening
in the world. It is necessary to change our way of listening, we need to see
eye to eye with the people affected.
Third, it is not
enough to read the statistics, it is necessary to deeply understand and know
every situation or as Eugenio said: “It means nothing that the GDP is good if
all the population is dead.”
Finally, Eugenio spoke
about two different types of volunteering: functional volunteering, which plays
according to the rules of the donors without really helping and/or empowering
people and real volunteering, which helps people understand and be aware of
their situation in order to be able to claim their rights.
Mr. Melandri concluded
with three messages for good volunteering:
1. “When a leaf falls
into the river even if it might not seem like that, it changes the course of
the river”: Successful volunteering is the one that through educating and
proposing good life styles in the present changes the future.
2. “We live in a Kafka
castle, we can move freely inside it but we don’t have open windows or the
possibility to leave it”: Good volunteering is the one that opens the windows
of the castle to see what is outside and bring it into the castle. Doing this it
helps other people to be aware on what is happening outside their reality.
3. We need to create a
“hope movement” for the world to see that we are not working and struggling
alone but that there are others who are hoping as we are and working in the
same direction.
In the early
afternoon, before listening to the next speakers, we had the pleasure to hear
the testimony of some former volunteers about their experiences in different VIDES
missions. Regardless of their specific work, all volunteers agreed on the fact
that their experience changed them and their way to act in the society and to see
the world around them completely: it was a lesson for life. They rediscovered fundamental values our modern
society has already lost, they entered the doors of a new culture and became an
active part of it.
The seminar continued
with two last speeches.
Fabio Attard discussed the topic “Is there space in this
world for our youth?”. At the beginning, he described our “fluid” society,
where everything changes fast and people, especially the youth, are losing
their values and their role models. For this reason, the aim of religious
communities and volunteering associations is to be a solid role model for the
youth, hearing their needs, helping them find their place in this world and
showing them that they are loved. In fact, It is just when they are heard that
they start listening.
Sr. Runita discussed “The presence of VIDES in the FMA
youth ministry”. She reaffirmed the importance of the education to solidarity,
gratefulness, justice and peace as a fundamental part of the youth ministry.
Furthermore she gave VIDES some advices to continue its work in the youth
ministry: Reaffirm the kindness that exist in every youth’s heart, show the
importance of being open to Gods message, construct a healthy humanity, persons
of God that serve others, for life and peace, learn and grow together, share
our mission and promote and enhance vocational life.
All the debates were
very interesting and left us with a very important message for our personal life
and for the work of VIDES:
1)
Volunteering
does change reality but also reality changes volunteering and in both cases, it
should always be in a positive way.
2)
Volunteering
needs to open the world’s eyes to the different situations and realities of our
world.
3)
Volunteering
gives the possibility to everybody to become and active citizen of their
community, transforming it into a community of people and values.
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