The meeting was attended by Directors, pastoral coordinators and other members of education centre leadership teams, as well as the representatives of the OES from 11 of the 13 institutes and education centres in St Luke's Province, Venezuela (VEN).
The event began with the presentation of experiences of the various OESs, during which they illustrated how each of them was formed, what their activities are and how they carry them out, as well as who it is that carry them out and to whom they are addressed. Thanks to this first dynamic, it was possible to obtain an initial perpsective of the characteristics of the OESs in Venezuela, called upon to carry out various pedagogical, pastoral, cultural and sporting activities, following the Salesian charism and addressed to the entire educational community.
Fr Jorge Bastidas, SDB, Delegate for Youth Ministry in VEN Province, then presented the theme “Leadership for service” (transformative, participatory and community), fostering reflection on the situation of young Venezuelans, their dreams, their challenges and their difficulties. The working proposal for the accompanying teachers was to rethink the way of accompanying and to describe concrete actions to achieve it.
Subsequently, Fr Rafael Oliveros, SDB, developed the central theme “The Salesian Student Organisation”. Across different work groups, OES student representatives were asked to answer the following questions: “What would I like my school to be like? What steps have we taken and/or can we take for its promotion and operation? What actions can we promote and implement as a student organisation? What conditions are necessary for the student organisation to achieve its goals/objectives? Who among the teachers can advise/help us? Why?”
In this circumstance, it was also suggested that the teachers present develop a work plan for the success of the Salesian Student Organisation.
The approaches and proposals were finally presented in a plenary session by the different groups of representatives of the OES and accompanying teachers, enriching the educative and pastoral work of each of the Salesian schools in the country. It is worth noting that all these contributions will form part of the reorganisation process and work plans of the OESs.
Ultimately, many challenges and tasks for the future were identified during the 2023 schools meeting, which were taken up with Salesian spirituality, in the light of the Preventive System and in a family atmosphere.
https://www.infoans.org/en/sections/news/item/18520-venezuela-meeting-of-heads-of-salesian-schools#sigProIdc6414cdf1e
