At this time when coming together in person is difficult, the Vincentian Family Homeless Alliance (FHA) decided to organise webinars to fulfill our goals of building global capacity and facilitating learning opportunities in the Vincentian Family. In 2021 we organised two webinars, and we hope to make webinars a regular practice for the FHA over the next few years.

In May we had the privilege of explaining our goals and plans for the next three years to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the largest Vincentian branch. The international president, Renato Lima, and the International Territorial Vice-Presidents (ITVP) of the Society participated in this event. We were also blessed with the presence of Father Andrés Motto CM, spiritual advisor of the Society.

Later, in July, over 70 people joined to listen to an all-woman panel explain how they developed their “13 Houses” projects. Vincentians from Cambodia to Brazil, from Ireland to Australia, had the opportunity to ask Sister Winnie Mutuku DC from Kenya, Ana María Escaño from the Philippines and Dawn Colapietro from Haiti questions about initiating such a project.

As we begin a new strategic cycle for the years 2022 – 2024 we want to incorporate webinars as a regular communications tool, always making sure that live translating is available in order to deal with language barriers. Among the topics that we hope to present in the coming months are: Vincentian responses to emergencies and crises, education as a tool to prevent homelessness, human trafficking and gender inequality, and local advocacy. All webinars will be recorded and made available our website and on our YouTube channel for those who are not able to attend the live presentation.

Source: https://vfhomelessalliance.org/