Cletus D’Souza sdb
MATUNGA, JULY 10, 2008: Don Bosco Youth Services (DBYS) is conducting six one-day workshops on ‘Education to Love’ during the month of July for the final year students of St. Andrews College, Mumbai. The first workshop was held yesterday, July 9, at the DBYS Audio-Visual Hall. The same will be offered to the final year post-graduate students of Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai. These workshops form part of the Value Education outreach programme of DBYS. They provide an insight on the beautiful theme of ‘Relationships and Love’. Each batch that attends the programme comprises about 100 students. In all, over 700 youngsters from varying religious backgrounds will be attending these workshops. ‘Education to Love’ creates an increasing awareness of one’s self and aims to empower youth to make a definite choice, based on personal convictions with respect to their relationships in life. The different topics covered during the sessions are ‘Self Esteem and A Healthy Self-Image’ by Fr. Cletus D’Souza, ‘Spirituality of Sexuality-Issues on Dating and Pre-marital Sex’ by Sr. Philomena D’Souza and ‘Abortion’ by Fr. Steve Rodrigues. ‘When a healthy self’ meets another self, the relationship blossoms into love. The programme explores the ‘Journey of Love’ from self to the sexual act and its consequences. The workshops are conducted with visual clippings, handouts, power-point presentations and interactive discussions. The participants find the programme “a real eye-opener”, “amazing”, “revealing” – to quote their own words. Through these programmes DBYS endeavours to help young people grow into responsible adults.