Italy - DBN Development Education Working Group – dreaming together new projects
Rome, Italy – April 2024 - From 17 to 19 April, was held in Rome, the meeting of Working Group Education for Development of the Don Bosco Network. 11 participants, from 8 different countries, met to deepen the actions that their respective entities carry out in the field of Education for Global Citizenship and Social Transformation. On Thursday 18 April, Fr Rafael Bejarano, world head of Salesian Social Works and member of the Youth Pastoral Sector, gave a formative talk, linking global citizenship and the human rights work of Salesian entities with the ecclesial and Salesian magisterium, and encouraged the participants to become empowered in their knowledge of the documents that underpin the human, Christian and Salesian principles of our actions. In the rest of the sessions, participants reflected on strategies for joint action in the field of education for global citizenship, and how to foster the engagement of young people in society through Salesian organisations, and projected the future of the coming years in the Don Bosco Network. Friday was time for initiatives funded by European programmes such as Erasmus+. It started with the project "Hands on Development", presented by Bryan Magro from Malta, which combines development cooperation with non-formal education to get young people more involved in the international arena. We continued with the analysis of other calls made in the past and dreaming of possible new projects. An intense and productive meeting that has not taken place since before the Covid-19 pandemic.