by Andrea Serrao
HYDERABAD-INDIA, SEPTEMBER 22, 2014: Three youth (Pearl D'souza, Savio Khare and Andrea Serrao) from Salesian parishes of the Bombay province travelled on the September 11 to the beautiful state of Telangana. The next day they arrived at the Don Bosco Provincial House in Hyderabad for the Don Bosco Youth Animation South Asia Groups and Movements Leadership Training programme 2014. They were later joined by other groups from the different Salesian provinces of India. In all, thirty-two youth leaders and youth animators from Tiruchy, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Kolkata participated.
On September 13, the programme began with the inauguration ceremony by Fr. Edwin Colaco and Fr. Benny Joseph. Fr. Brian Moras conducted the first session on "Salesian Pedagogy" which gave us an insight on the work of Don Bosco, his functioning with the youth and how as today's youth leaders, one needed to follow his example. After a short break Fr. Edwin, launched the book "Handout for Youth Groups and Animators" which contains practical resources to help the functioning of Salesian youth groups. It also gives guidance for youth animators.
A session on "Accompaniment of the Youth" was taken by Fr. Thathireddy. He spoke about the qualities that a youth animator should possess such as leadership, positive thinking, listening presence, etc. This was followed by an interesting "demo youth meeting" that gave us further understanding of how our youth groups should function in reality.Besides the informative and exciting sessions, there was also a lot of fun, games, song and dance.
These not only got us communicating with each other but brought us together as one Salesian family working towards a common goal; building up the Salesian Youth Movement. They journeyed back to Mumbai on the evening of September 14, taking with them plenty of useful resources for their own Salesian parishes. "The power and choice both lie within us. For someone rightly said, 'if you've never failed, you've never tried'."