The Vincentian Family Collaboration Commission met in Rome, Italy April 9 – 10, 2015 at the Daughters of Charity guesthouse on Via Ezio.

Their first order of business was an evaluation of the Vincentian Family Collaborative Action Programs (VFCAP) which have started to take place on regional levels. Thus far, the experience has met with great success in the Philippines and Ethiopia. In addition, a VFCAP training was offered to the delegates of FAVILA in Guatemala. Plans were reviewed for the additional workshops planned for 2015: India (English), Cameroon (French), Sao Paulo (Portuguese), Venezuela and Ecuador (Spanish), Paris (French) and Portugal (Portuguese). Remote plans were also discussed for pending programs in 2016.

The VFCC also studied its work plan for the upcoming Year of Vincentian Collaboration. The material which will appear online via FamVin.org and the Facebook Vincentian Collaboration page is our responsibility.

The Commission also began a process for planning for future initiatives it may wish to develop to foster the work of collaboration among the branches of the Vincentian Family.

On Saturday morning, April 11, there was a joint meeting fo the VFCC with the French Language Core Group. It was an opportunity for us to discuss the progress of the translation and acculturation of the VFCAP modules from English to French as well as to speak about future directions for VFCAP in French. The French group continued to meet in Rome on April 11th and 12th.

The members of the VFCC are: Denise el-Khoury (Lebanon), Mark McGreevy (England), Yasmine Cajuste (Haiti), Manny Ginete (South Sudan), Veronika Popic (Croatia), Yancarlos de Jesus Carrasco de los Santos (Dominican Republic/Spain), Denise la Rock (Secretary, USA), and Joseph Agostino (Coordinator, USA). Unable to attend this meeting were Natalie Monteza (France) and Renato Lima de Oliveira (Brazil).

The members of the French Language Core Team, coordinated by Yasmine Cajuste and Denise el-Khoury, are: Fr. Abdo Eid (Lebanon), Bernadette Ah-Moy (Madagascar), Fr. Emile Ghali (Egypt), Genevieve Bonny (Haiti), Fr. Jean Robert Bonenge (R.D. Congo), Fr. Narcisse Djerambete (Chad), Fr. Rafael Isharianto (Indonesia) and Ribel Elias (Lebanon).if;”> (Lebanon).