AN N E X
Lasallian Family Magazine
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Some Lasallian Responses to the Global Compact on Education "It takes a whole village to raise a child"
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goes an ancient African saying, the "Village of Education" adds Pope Francis, which is only realized with the courage to place the person at the centre.
We Lasallians have had this courage for 300 years.
Annex Intercom 153 - January 2022 Secretariat of Solidarity and Development (La Salle Foundation) Author: Laura Ballerini
Communication Director - lballerini@lasalle.org Editor: Br. Alexánder González, FSC - agonzalez@lasalle.org Editorial coordinator: Ilaria Iadeluca - iiadeluca@lasalle.org Layout: Giulia Giannarini - ggiannarini@lasalle.org Translator: Br. Agustín Ranchal, FSC - aranchal@lasalle.org To send articles: comunicazione@lasalle.org Brothers of the Christian Schools – Rome – Communication and Technology Service www.lasalle.org | Facebook: www.fb.com/lasalleorg - Twitter: @lasalleorg - Instagram: lasalleorg #SomosLaSalle | #WeAreLaSalle | #NousSommesLaSalle
PH Marco Amato
BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
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La Salle Foundation
Lasallian educational centres around the world are not just classrooms in which to learn, but true educational communities rooted in the local area, operating in synergy with the families, in a constant connection between the school, the society and the culture in which they are located.
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As a non-profit foundation, a legal instrument of the Secretariat of Solidarity and Development, we contribute to building "educational villages" where programs are implemented to promote the inclusion of girls and women, access to the labour market and the inclusion of marginalized minorities, with dorms, canteens, clean water and everything needed to remove the obstacles that prevent boys and girls from going to school and not abandoning it. The Global Compact on Education invites us to promote education at the service of integral human development and for us this action means to safeguard the full development of the child in all its dimensions, to protect their rights and to provide them with the necessary tools to build their future. In other words, the ultimate goal of all our educational action is the full realization of the human being and of the community in which they live. In this way Lasallian educational communities are transformed into centres for the promotion of
change, where projects are carried out whose impact goes beyond the educational institution, contributing to the improvement of the living conditions of the community. Here are just a few examples of how the international Lasallian network embraces the 7 commitments of the Global Compact on Education:
Placing the person at centre
to place the person at the centre of every educational process, to bring out their specificity and their ability to be in relation with others, against the culture of discarding. In order to promote an educational approach that places the child at the centre, we are committed each year to providing training courses for the entire educational team on children's rights, resilience and best practices in innovative pedagogy. We also involve our students and their families so that the values promoted in the classroom continue at home. Since the last General Chapter (2014) we have trained 8212 people through 36 formation courses.
Brothers of the Christian Schools
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PH Marco Amato
La Salle Foundation
Listening to the younger generation Listening to the voice of children, young people and youth to build together a future of justice and peace, a life worthy of every person. Kids Help Line | Brisbane, Australia When it comes to listening, one cannot fail to mention the Lasallian NGO Yourtown's "Kids Help line" initiative, a free call centre available to children and youth aged between 5 and 25 that provides counselling and support services. This hotline allows callers to speak with counsellors and psychologists who are experts on issues related to bullying, depression, suicide, sexual abuse, school dropout, alcohol and drug abuse, and intrafamily violence. Kids' Help Line responds to 300,000 telephone calls a year and is the only free telephone counselling service in Australia.
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Brothers of the Christian Schools
Promoting women Promote the full participation of girls in education. All girls at school | Democratic Republic of Congo In the Democratic Republic of Congo, half the girls between of 5 and 17 years of age do not go to school and most of them do not finish their studies, leading to early marriages, poverty and teenage pregnancies. Even in our Lasallian school "Kuda Dia Zayi", located in the rural and isolated area of Tumba, only 11% of girls enrolled in secondary school, for socio-economic reasons that prevent the full achievement of girls' education and gender equality. This is why we have intervened with a scholarship program that allows 80 girls from the primary and secondary schools to continue their studies every year, accompanied by a process of listening and sensitization of the families. The school also promotes a vocational training program in sewing, hygiene and home economics for girls who have dropped out of school, often teenage mothers, giving them the opportunity to live in the school with their children. There is also farmland available to the beneficiaries, allowing them to learn farming techniques and provide food security for themselves and their children. This training programme lasts for 4 months and caters for 30 girls, for a total of 90 beneficiaries each year.
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La Salle Foundation
Empowering the family See in the family the first and indispensable educator. CEALS | Beira, Mozambique
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Centro Educacional Asistencial La Salle (C.E.A.L.S.) is an educational support centre for 350 public school students, who are assisted in their studies. The children and young people come from a particularly impoverished area of Beira, and many of them drop out of school early. Also affecting school attendance is chronic malnutrition, an extremely widespread phenomenon in the country (Mozambique ranks ninth in Africa for malnutrition levels). This is why CEALS also offers a food programme that is not limited to the distribution of meals among children and young people, but also actively involves their families in a nutritional education programme. By empowering families on balanced nutrition, we encourage healthy, sustainable and cooperative health habits. The well-being of our beneficiaries cannot be achieved without raising awareness among their families!
Brothers of the Christian Schools
Open to welcome To educate others and educate ourselves to welcome, opening ourselves to the most vulnerable and marginalized. Fratelli Project | Saida and Beirut, Lebanon This socio-educational centre is a "Beyond the Borders" experience shared with the Marist Brothers. The programme, on the outskirts of Saida and Beirut, welcomes refugee children who have fled the war in Syria and religious persecution in Iraq, who have no other access to education or who have learning difficulties often due to the language - different from their mother tongue - or to the traumas these boys and girls have experienced. Educational support is given to children who attend the national public schools, or who have to prepare for the entrance exam to enter them. The two centres serve more than six hundred boys and girls, ages 3 to 15, who normally participate Monday through Saturday in the various programs. During the months of July and August, the Summer School and Summer Camp offer recreation, creativity, art and excursions for the children. These socio-educational centres also integrate permanent psychosocial support and sports activities in collaboration with Fundación Real Madrid. In addition to caring for the youngest children, Fratelli also offers literacy, computer, language and sewing classes to young adults, with an ongoing cross-cutting focus on life skills development, working particularly to engage the mothers and siblings of those children involved in Fratelli programmes. These courses promote personal development and improve the employability of young people in the precarious situation of refugees, who are at high risk of falling into crime, addiction and the trap of fundamentalism. The Fratelli Project aims to build "bridges" and break down "walls" of prejudice between populations, to promote human dignity and ensure that vulnerable children and youth have equal access to quality education, in a protected and inclusive environment, to give them back the rights that violence has stolen from them.
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La Salle Foundation
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Brothers of the Christian Schools
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PH Marco Amato
La Salle Foundation
Renewing the economy and politics To study new ways of understanding the economy, politics, growth and progress, at the service of the human being and the entire human family in the perspective of an integral ecology. Utopia | Yopal, Colombia
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Utopía is a university campus dedicated to agronomy and agri-food engineering. It welcomes young people from areas of the country affected by political violence, drug trafficking and poverty. Utopía offers young people, in a positive and protected environment, a particular synthesis of theoretical education and high-tech practical experience. The aim is to provide them with the opportunity to return to the rural communities they belong to and undertake productive activities that open the horizon to sustainable development and can contribute in an innovative way to the reconstruction of the social fabric of those areas tormented by various types of conflict. More than 400 students between the ages of 18 and 22 are involved in this educational action that promotes technical training and economic progress, hand in hand with peace and social justice, generating new models of fair and solidarity-based economy, based on principles of equality, transparency, community life, cooperation and respect for the environment.
Brothers of the Christian Schools
Guarding the Common Home To care for and nurture our common home, protecting its resources, adopting simpler lifestyles and focusing on renewable and environmentally friendly energy. St La Salle School Karemeno | Karemeno, Kenya La Salle Secondary School in Karemeno offers its 205 students not only regular academic courses, with coed classes (an innovative aspect compared to the country's tradition), but also courses in agriculture and vocational training, thanks to the presence of agricultural fields, a greenhouse, a farm and a fishing pond. The educational program allows the students to put into practice what they have learned at school, so that once they have finished their secondary education - especially for those who cannot afford to go to university - they will be able to improve their skills and the profitability of their mainly agro-farming activities, often already carried out by their families. Many of the school's premises are already powered by the clean, renewable energy of solar panels and, in order to reduce its environmental impact even further, the school is acquiring a biogas plant, which will eliminate the use of wood burning. The biogas plant will be powered by biomass produced by the farm and will in turn produce waste that can be used as organic fertilizer for agricultural fields. In this way, the school will not only reduce its environmental footprint, but also train its students in sustainable practices and responsible management of natural resources. In addition, the funds saved from the purchase of the wood and fertilizer will be reinvested in scholarships for the most vulnerable youth in the community, demonstrating that environmental sustainability is not only an end to be achieved, but also a means to promote a more equitable future for all.
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La Salle Foundation
These are just a few examples of how we Lasallians commit ourselves each day to the generations of tomorrow and carry out our shared educational mission. And it is with this mission in our hearts, and our Lasallian history behind us, that today we must accept the invitation of Pope Francis to open up new paths and walk together to bring the reflections of the Global Compact on Education into our every educational action and to become agents of change and social transformation starting from the desks of our schools.
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