austraLasia #2937
EAO as a model?
ROME: 2 November 2011 -- Every one of the eight Salesian regions is different, and each has something to offer. Not every initiative of one is easily replicable in the other, but this should not prevent one region from considering what the other does and seeing what might be applicable.
Recent involvement in the CIVAM meeting (the provincial conference for all of Africa and Madagascar) revealed that they have looked at, or have already borrowed, or are looking at some of the arrangements that pertain to our EAO Region as they continue to develop their own structures.
A case in point is the mobile formation team. Africa of course has a different set of problems; it might be one continent but it has three common languages for Salesian purposes (except that Madagascar might have more in common with Fiji than Africa! Malagasy is a language which belongs to the same language family as Fijian and is not an African language). Salesian Africa uses English, French and Portuguese, so any team or structure has to be able to handle at least those three. Nevertheless, CIVAM has set up what they call CONFORT, which is close enough to English to suggest a certain 'ease' and the French are happy too! This is a mobile ongoing formation team for Africa-Madagascar.
But that Region's latest decision is also interesting - they want to do something for communication across the region, and have set up a loose structure for now, involving three people: a coordinator (who speaks both French and English, as well as other local languages) a vice-coordinator (who speaks English natively, then good Portuguese and French as well), and a Provincial from the Conference who speaks French and Spanish and can make do in English if he has to, but the Spanish, which he speaks natively, at least makes it possible to follow Portuguese. Now the group is looking at what model they might follow to develop Salesian communications across the whole region - and austraLasia is one of the possible models they are looking at. In other words, a regional structure is not so much about meetings and other possibly heavy structures, but about a very light structure that connects people, something that austraLasia has grown to achieve, without a great deal of fuss, though obviously with consistent effort, over a 15 year period.
What way the Africa-Madagascar region will eventually go with all this is still in the future, and they do need to develop an approach that allows for the three languages interchangeably, no mean challenge, but it will certainly be of interest to note that a relatively recent region such as EAO is already able to offer something to other regions. And of course, the other matter this poses comes our way: what can we learn from Africa-Madagascar? Plenty, quite probably. The exchange of missionaries between the two regions is under way and it is but one channel which might help us learn from each other.
EAO as a model?
ROME: 2 November 2011 -- Every one of the eight Salesian regions is different, and each has something to offer. Not every initiative of one is easily replicable in the other, but this should not prevent one region from considering what the other does and seeing what might be applicable.
Recent involvement in the CIVAM meeting (the provincial conference for all of Africa and Madagascar) revealed that they have looked at, or have already borrowed, or are looking at some of the arrangements that pertain to our EAO Region as they continue to develop their own structures.
A case in point is the mobile formation team. Africa of course has a different set of problems; it might be one continent but it has three common languages for Salesian purposes (except that Madagascar might have more in common with Fiji than Africa! Malagasy is a language which belongs to the same language family as Fijian and is not an African language). Salesian Africa uses English, French and Portuguese, so any team or structure has to be able to handle at least those three. Nevertheless, CIVAM has set up what they call CONFORT, which is close enough to English to suggest a certain 'ease' and the French are happy too! This is a mobile ongoing formation team for Africa-Madagascar.
But that Region's latest decision is also interesting - they want to do something for communication across the region, and have set up a loose structure for now, involving three people: a coordinator (who speaks both French and English, as well as other local languages) a vice-coordinator (who speaks English natively, then good Portuguese and French as well), and a Provincial from the Conference who speaks French and Spanish and can make do in English if he has to, but the Spanish, which he speaks natively, at least makes it possible to follow Portuguese. Now the group is looking at what model they might follow to develop Salesian communications across the whole region - and austraLasia is one of the possible models they are looking at. In other words, a regional structure is not so much about meetings and other possibly heavy structures, but about a very light structure that connects people, something that austraLasia has grown to achieve, without a great deal of fuss, though obviously with consistent effort, over a 15 year period.
What way the Africa-Madagascar region will eventually go with all this is still in the future, and they do need to develop an approach that allows for the three languages interchangeably, no mean challenge, but it will certainly be of interest to note that a relatively recent region such as EAO is already able to offer something to other regions. And of course, the other matter this poses comes our way: what can we learn from Africa-Madagascar? Plenty, quite probably. The exchange of missionaries between the two regions is under way and it is but one channel which might help us learn from each other.
