HYDERABAD: 1st November 2009 -- As the two EAO
representatives
(Fr P. Tukan from ITM and Fr R. Figuracion from FIS) could tell you,
the South Asia Region, effectively all of India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan
in this instance since FIS was involved, has completed a six day
meeting series on Social Communications. The '6 day' approach is
something new and a bit special, but it is worth now looking at why it
was done this way and what its results were.
South Asia is no less complex a region than, say,
EAO. Those who think
India speaks just or mainly English and Hindi are simply not
well-informed! The meeting represented native speakers of at least
Telegu, Malayalam, Tamil, Sinhalese, Konkani, Kanada, Khasi in addition
to Hindi and English and one or two other languages that do not come to
mind. The meeting used English as the lingua franca. Salesian South
Asia has an umbrella Communications structure called BOSCOM, but a
considerable variety of activities come under that - almost too many,
in a way, for that body to successfully coordinate. So the
meeting in
Hyderabad brought three (effectively four) of these groups together.
Delegates met for two days, Centres for formation to communication -
but they see themselves also or even mainly as publishers and
producers, hence the fourth category, for another two days, and
Salesian Bulletin editors for the final two days. Some stayed for the
entire period, thus providing a valuable link factor. Many came for at
least two of the groups either because they were wearing two hats, or
they were simply interested (or having to travel three days by train to
get there and three days back again meant a 'forced' attendance at
everything!)
This approach meant that Fr Filiberto, on his first
visit to the
Region, had a chance to dwell, absorb, listen to a broad range of
interests, concerns, solutions, meet practically everyone in key roles
in the communications sector in Salesian South Asia. This alone
was
invaluable. The other valuable outcome was something that was only
'revealed' on the final day when Salesian Bulletin Editors worked out
their deliberations. The fact was that the deliberations (a mere
handful, say 4 at the most) of the first group, the delegates, found
echoes and further detail in both the following sets of deliberations.
This was not a forced result, in that there was no real effort to say
that this had to be the case - it just happened that way, but it
happened because essentially the concerns of Salesian communicators are
similar across the board but take on different hues according to the
role a person is playing. A delegate sees things one way, a
formator
another way and an editor yet another! This aspect of the 6 days might
be a valuable lesson for the SC Department in the future and for other
departments for that matter.
Another revelation - the so-called 'Centres for
Formation to Social
Communication' came to the meeting seeing themselves in practical terms
as producers, enterprises, publishers, responding not only to a
Christian audience but admitting that their greatest user-base was
probably non-Christian. But they went away from the meeting aware, if
not convinced, that they are in almost every case conducting formal and
informal courses that can have no other label than 'formation to
communication', and that many of their concerns (like finding new and
creative authors, writers, for instance) involve formation issues. This
realisation opened up a whole new field of thinking and action for them.
Six days is a long haul, but it was not a talk-fest,
nor a 'Roma locuta
causa soluta', here-it-is-now-just-do-it thumping of tables. Six days
allows reflection, gives reign to imagination and favours considered
solutions, in this case all arrived at by the participants themselves,
maybe with a little gudiance along the way! _________________ AustraLasia is an
email
service
for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions
as an
agency for ANS based in
Rome.
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Title: australasia 2346
Subject and key words:
Date (year): 2009
ID: 2000-2099|2346
