AIC International Assembly – Tuesday Report

Second in a series of daily reports of the AIC Assembly as prepared by Rosa Maria Cassas.TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd

TRANSFORMATION BEFORE POVERTY

1. Personal transformation

After the Queretaro assembly, several volunteers and grass root groups pointed out their difficulties to apply the second one of the Guide Lines, mainly in relation to the participation of beneficiaries. This is the reason why it was decided to dedicate one day to reflection on this topic.

Therefore, we propose to think deeply about the application of the second Guide Line: Transformation before poverty.

Today’s work is very important, since our priority objective is to work so the poor turn into actors, co-responsible with all society in the struggle against inequality and injustice, that are a great obstacle towards peace.

This is a way that the AIC started a long time ago, when passing from assistance to promotion, and then to self-achievement and the participation of the beneficiaries. This commits us now to work with the notion of empowerment.

Our work today begins with a presentation entitled ‘You said empowerment…’ This relatively new word pertains to the personal relation between volunteers and beneficiaries, which is a project, which in time is a pillar of Saint Vincent’s working method in all kinds of projects that go from the visit to the dwelling place of the beneficiary to specific great projects.

It is a difficult work to translate into Spanish and into French, thus we shall always use empowerment, in English. But we all shall tray to understand thoroughly the meaning of the expression and all the implications it has.

We know that the participation of the beneficiaries is strictly bonded to our individual change, and today it has been proposed that we work together to define better our identity as AIC volunteers in our personal encounter with the poor.

This is a notion that will allow us to question ourselves about the quality of the relation we establish with the beneficiaries and to reflect upon

– Which is our place in this relationship
– Which is the beneficiary’s place
– Who occupies a power place in this relationship

We must think and hope that today’s work encourages us and allows us to advance one more step in the road towards the goal of the responsibility of the beneficiaries. We have committed ourselves to do this in the line that pertains to transformation before poverty.

Patricia Fontaine will help us in this reflection and will guide us in the workshops.

At nigh we shall have the Friendship Feast. It is a joyful moment, ideal to know other cultures and thus strengthen the bonds among us.