FLASH NEWS:

NEWS

Mumbai

South Asia SYM Coordinators Virtual Meet `Empowering the Young to Lead Movements`.

15 August 2020

Ecology, Lifestyle, Media, Youth, Youth Groups,

- Father Robert Simon - DBYASouth asia

The opening session of the virtual meet of the Salesian Youth Movement Coordinators of South Asian Region on the International Youth Day [12 Aug 2020] was addressed by Father Jerry Thomas Don Bosco South Asia Green Alliance Coordinator. Speaking on ``Empowering the Young to lead Movements`` he invited SYM animators and leaders to ``Listen to the dreams of the young and enable them to live their dreams and passions.`` The challenge thrown to the 16 participants representing the provinces of South Asia was, ``What is the non-negotiable rule of your presence? Is it that every young person who visits any of the Salesian presence feels like returning again?``

Father Thomas shared his experiences in Northeast India with such a project where many of his students in the College of Social Work at Jorhat, have moved on in life living their dreams in reality and thus serving the society. He further shared news about the `Economy of Francesco 2020` an invitation of Pope Francis to create a balanced economy in the world. He requested to identify two young people to represent the South Asia region at the international forum in connection with ecology. In the second part of the meet, the province Coordinators shared their activities and experiences with the young during the Lockdown days. SYM had reached out to the young and adolescents in their provinces to address the needs in various areas like spirituality, education, relief works, rehabilitation, counselling, competition, virtual animation and awareness meets, engaging on social media platforms, livelihood training and many other. It was inspiring and gratifying to see the volume of work done with/for the young. After the sharing the annual plan proposed before COVID-19 days was relooked into. The following are the proposed activities for the coming months. • Every province will meet with the SYM leaders in the month of September. • It will be followed up with a national meet of the SYM leaders in the month of October. • The SYM Coordinators will meet again in the November. The meet concluded with a prayer to Our Lady.