Assam (India). An international online conference for teachers on the “Salesian Educational Presence in Higher Education (ISS)” of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of Asia was held on 28 November 2020, organized by the Auxilium College of Udalguri (Assam), Indian Province of Mother of the Church (ING).
There are nine FMA Institutes of Higher Education in Asia, of which six are in India, two in the Philippines, and one in Japan. Over 130 participants took part in this Conference whose main objective was to start networking and sharing resources among ISS, starting with the contents on the Salesian educational presence among young people.
The event began with a brief moment of prayer prepared by the students of Auxilium College in which God was thanked for the gift of Don Bosco and his integral education system for young people. Sister Regina Mary Rathinaswamy, Former Principal of Auxilium College in Vellore, then presented the statistics of the ISS-FMA in Asia and welcomed the participants to the Conference.
The President of the Interprovincial Conference of India (PCI), Sr. Margaret Amalanathan, Provincial of the Province of Our Lady of the Snow (INT), in her inaugural address congratulated ISS-FMA Asia for organizing this first Congress. She spoke of Don Bosco’s educational method and invited everyone to go forward with courage, within the pandemic situation of Covid-19.
The theme of “Salesian Educational Presence” was explored by the speaker, Sr. Molly Kaniampadickal, FMA, who, on the basis of her vast knowledge and experience on the subject, outlined the characteristics of Don Bosco’s Preventive System, a fundamental contribution to the integral education of young people, for educators of all times.
Sr. Ivone Goulart Lopes, collaborator of the FMA Youth Ministry Sector, addressed in her report the issue of the Preventive System from the female point of view, highlighting how women and education are an inseparable combination for the progress of humanity.
The General Councilor for Youth Ministry, Sr. Runita Galve Borja, spoke of Salesian Educational Presence in an ecological key. She stressed the importance of networking, a characteristic of the Salesian way of educating, starting with Don Bosco who knew how to involve others in a common mission; and Mother Mazzarello who accepted the mandate “I entrust them to you” confiding in her friend Petronilla and with the collaboration of young women who became the pioneers of the FMA Institute. She then outlined the characteristics of the ‘new normal’ of this pandemic time in a Salesian key, encouraging Educators and Teachers to live the mission of formators with creativity and educational passion, grafted onto the solid foundation of the Preventive System.
This Conference, the first in-depth meeting on the network of the ISS-FMA Asia, will be followed up with other monthly online seminars scheduled for different groups.
