The immersion experience was still very fresh in our minds and hearts as we continued with our 5^th day of the Systemic Change Workshop.

We had been the ones who received much from the experience. In the community, we witnessed hope, courage, determination and love. These last 2 days of our workshop will be dedicated to train the trainors and an important consideration in systemic change explained to us was about Fund-raising. Jim Claffey beautifully stressed that it is a ministry – “It is a way of proclaiming our vision of faith and inviting other people to participate in the mission.”

At the end of the workshop, each branch/institution will get a USB drive containing all the documents, videos and presentations on Systemic Change which will we be a great tool for the re-echoing of this workshop. Fr. Joe Foley, CM also introduced us to the online Systemic Change toolkit and how to access it in our FAMVIN website.

We moved on to hear more from Jim on Mary’s Meals and how it has partnered with the Vincentian Family in a project involving a consortium of 14 schools in Haiti. The program has two aspects: 1) provide a hot meal for 5,000 Haitian children every day and; 2) improve their education by training the teachers. Another project is DREAM (Drug Resource Enhancement against AIDS and Malnutrition) – a project initiated by the Community of Sant’ Egidio and carried out in collaboration with the Daughters of Charity.

The afternoon was spent doing group work followed by reporting. After having learned so much regarding Systemic Change for the last 4 days, each group had to make 2 programs (1-day/2-days) outlining the essential elements and outline of the topics as well as the methodology to be used when presenting this back to their own branches/institutions. To close the session, we watched a short video entitled “Make the Difference” which resonated with own desire to also make the difference, however small it may be at its inception.

Ana Maria Escaño

VMY Philippines