Jose Sequeira sdb
PANJIM, DECEMBER 3, 2009: Don Bosco Action India, the Network of the Development Offices, held its thirteenth National Meet on November 28-29, 2009 at Raia, Goa. The meeting was attended by those in-charge of the various Development Offices and the Provincial Economers from the 10 Salesian Provinces of India. Also present for the meeting were representatives from Dmos Comide, Belgium and Jugend Eine Welt, Austria.
The Konkan Provincial Fr. Loddy Pires in his inaugural address welcomed the delegates and encouraged them to carry on with greater zeal the work of reaching out to the marginalized, like Don Bosco.
Fr. A. M. Joseph, Coordinator of the Network, then spoke on the ‘Growth and Functioning of Development Offices’. He outlined the growth of the DOs over the last 13 years, which has also led to the establishment of another network, namely, DBTech India. He ended his presentation by stating that the DOs need to work more closely with one another so as to make a greater impact on the national scene.
Next, two resource persons, Mr. Harsh Jaitli the CEO of VANI and Ms. Minu Thommen of DB Tech India addressed the gathering. Mr. Harsh Jaitli spoke on ‘Network and Networking’; the need to network, the concept and meaning of networking, its relevance and purpose, linkage building, types of networks, the key principles of networking and the issues and challenges of networks. Ms. Minu Thommen took up the theme of ‘Livelihood Skills and Opportunities for Networking’. She presented case studies on LABS (Dr. Reddy’s Foundation) and DBTI. This was followed by a presentation by Comide on Networking.
The delegates then spent time discussing what should be the focal development programme to be taken up by the Network for the next three years. After a long a lively discussion the following objective was defined: To empower Self Help Groups to access government and other programmes towards enhancing their livelihoods.
In the final session elections for the National Executive Committee were held. Fr. Savio Silveira, Mumbai was elected as the National Coordinator, while the other members elected to the Executive Committee were Fr. Jose Mathew (New Delhi), Fr. Johnson Parackal (Guwahati), Fr. Vincent Thamburaj (Trichy) and Fr. Sudhakar Bellamkonda (Hyderabad). The next annual meet will take place in November 2010 in Kerala.