Fondacio Asia - 1st Regional Project Meeting (2)

Continuing Our Story on Our Journey of Reflection and Discovery @ Bago, Myanmar

Day 2 – Tuesday, 5 November, 2013

The highlights of Day 2 was hearing out four invited Speakers. We had in our midst, Mr. J. D. Lovrenciear, Rev. Fr. Amal Raj, SJ and Mr. Shanon Khadka and Mr. Jerick Limoanco.

Mr. J. D. Lovrenciear, our first Speaker is a writer, consultant and trainer. He is the Chairman of Education, Training & Professional Development Bureau with the Malaysian national professional body, the Institute of Public Relations Malaysia (IPRM). He has been to over 15 countries throughout his thirty-year career providing consulting and training for corporations and has authored four books to date in the areas of communication, personal and professional development and public relations.

Rev. Fr. Amal Raj, despite his extremely tight schedules and work commitments in Myanmar, flew in from Bangkok to be with us. Father Amal is the Advisor to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Myanmar. He works in the social sectors, does training for the Church in Catholic Social Teaching and Social Mission in Myanmar. He also sits as advisor on Justice and Peace.

Teaming up, Mr. Shanon Khadka and Mr. Jerick Limoanco are resource persons from Gawad Kalinga in the Philippines, actively involved in Social Entrepreneurship with the Philippine icon of the poor, Mr. Tony Meloto. Both of them graduated from the country’s premier University, Ateneo de Manila, and have since been championing the cause for the transformation of the poorest of the poor sectors of humanity in the Philippines, through the organization famously known as “Gawad Kalinga”.

WE SHARE WITH ALL OUR FONDACIO MEMBERS AND FRIENDS AROUND THE GLOBE SOME OF THE KEY THOUGHTS FROM OUR SPEAKERS:

Mr. J. D. Lovrenciear speaking on 'Global and Regional Trends'

• The many traditional ways of doing businesses are being challenged, bringing new shifts to the way of life in Asia in relation to the global dimension. There is an “Asianization of Asia” taking place out there in the region, moving from multiple national identities to an Asian identity.
• The miracles and promises of capitalism and communism seem to be creating a whole world of painful experiences and harsh realities with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Progress as we had come to know all these decades is leaving doubts even in the minds of the rich.
• Meanwhile, the promises in Asia of a great new future for the world, poses new challenges for Fondacio. We have to gear up as we look at how to capitalize on these new trends, considering that we are a movement of different Asian nations. The critical need is being able to understand and find ways to engage with others within and around the region to build relationship anchored on trust, to stay connected on the global network of communities as we aim to fulfill our Mission objectives.

Rev. Father Amal speaking on ‘Leadership – in a Changing 
World’

• Reminders about leadership and response that need to be rooted in Catholic Social Teaching. We can easily be reduced to part-time Christians if we just practice “Word and Worship” without “Witness”.
• The need to keep asking “Is my response motivated by faith? Is my faith challenged by the context?”
• To be a Christian is always to be on the edge. This means that it has to be a conscious choice we make every day in our lives.
• There is a framework about reviewing our work. We need to go through this motion which involves four questions:

* What is happening? (Our Experience)
* Why is it happening? (Our Analysis)
* What does it mean? (Our Theological Reflection)
* How shall we respond? (Our Response)

Should we move from ‘Experience’ to ‘Analysis’ to ‘Response’, skipping ‘Theological Reflection’, then it means we are not Christian in our Mission but operating like an NGO.

• In Fondacio, unlike NGOs, this theological reflection helps us to remain Christ-centered in all that we do.
• There is a need to be ensured that Projects are not just fund-based, but are instead faith-based.
• Given the fast changing picture of Asia today, it calls us to be attentive to the way we respond in our respective communities.

Fr. Amal reminded Fondacio as a lay movement, to recover the priesthood of Christ as he lived it before Maundy Thursday, where the altar is wherever we are. Our framework should be Jesus Christ and his message.

Mr. Shanon Khadka and Mr. Jerick Limoanco present their Gawad Kalinga Project 






On the 2nd part of the day, we were introduced to Gawad Kalinga (GK), an NGO whose vision is to help end poverty by 2024. They do this by engaging with different sectors of society and working in a collaborative way using themselves as connectors to build social enterprises. They shared GK’s model of a farm village university as a holistic end-to-end initiative to work towards realizing their vision.

The GK presentation stretches through into Day 3.
Keep a look out for this ‘impossible dream turning into reality’ in the Philippines.
Updates are coming your way TOMORROW.

Fondacio Asia – 1st Regional Project Meeting (1)

METTA Development Training Centre, Bago, Myanmar

4 – 8 November, 2013

Fondacio Asia – “7 years in existence, serving 30 dioceses in 10 countries in Asia” for a renewed church and society, is now gearing for the next challenge. Delegates from China, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar and the United Kingdom are in Myanmar for their 5-day Regional Project Meeting in Bago amidst the quiet and reflective eco-friendly Training Centre.

29 Delegates had every reason to remain connected to their Mission call and the ground reality, not to mention the frogs, spiders and snakes that shared the territory on this Planet Place called METTA Development Training Centre that is about two hours drive from the Yangon Airport.

DEVOLVEMENT – The commitment from 4 – 8 November is to embark into a ‘Rethinking’ of our missions through projects in the region and to see how best we can DEVOLVE to a higher gear.

STAY CONNECTED –To help you stay in tune with the many great Moments of Truth unfolding here in Bago, we capture here the significance of each day, providing you a daily diet of our PROGRESS as we journey through our hearts and minds anchored in Christ the Lord.


Day 1 – Monday, 4 November, 2013

Rev. Fr. Poh Kwa, Director, National Catholic Youth Commission of Myanmar, leads the group in procession to begin the Launching Service.

Delegates started their first day journey with Mass offered by Fr. Poh Kwa. A significant Moment of Truth for all of us was the Cleansing of Hands during Offertory as we renewed our inner calls to mission.




This Session began with an Opening Address by our Council Reference for Asia Charles Bertille.

This Meeting is the outcome of the last ACT Meeting in March 2013 when, despite recognizing our weaknesses, we asked what would be our step of faith in each country.

We Share with you the Message from Charles Bertille:

In his Opening Address, Charles took the opportunity to put on record the works of Fondacio in each of the countries in Asia. The leaders in all of the networks were acknowledged. Greetings from our Fondacio President Francois Proteau (France), Vice President Antoine Dzamah (Togo, Africa) and all Council Members were conveyed to all present.

Highlighting that this Project Meeting in Bago is to push us into examining and rethinking of new ways of working, Charles emphasised the commitment for all of us to be at the service of the poor and the marginalized through our projects while remaining anchored in spirituality.

As Fondacio shifts to work on projects, there has to be a felt necessity to understand the symbiotic link between our spirituality and the projects. It is critical to live the principle of MCT (mission, community, path of transformation) in all the work, to attract people to become a community of disciples. We realised communities shrink when they lose focus on mission and just look at their needs only.

“Let us see the differences that enriches us; we recognize that we need to embrace the diversity. We need to go beyond ourselves to work in partnership with others as we grow in relationship with Jesus.”

Focusing on Pope Francis' call for change and a Christian response to the changes taking place in the world, he felt that the signpost for the future for Fondacio is to live as a movement. This requires collaboration with others – IFFAsia graduates, other organizations, the Church and the business world. It is also looking at what is good for the larger society.

“... all Christians,” says the Holy Father, “be joyful witnesses and proclaim your faith.”

One of the developments that’s being worked on today is devolving the basic formation program in IFFA to make it available to more young people in the 10 countries in Asia:

• to prepare them so that they can learn more effectively when they come to IFFA
• to offer systematic courses to the local church through the graduates
• to offer a platform for Xavier University to serve more the Churches of Asia through collaboration with IFFA in offering the basic formation program in (to) the countries where the IFFA graduates are present

One of the realisations during the project presentations of the countries this afternoon was not to do formation for formation's sake. We need to consider the relevance of the formation; what is the next step, what follows it. We need to provide opportunities to put our formation into practice in serving the marginalized.

“We need to change, mutate and think and work as a network and movement, going beyond ourselves to reach out and work with the young, the poor, and other groups in society while being rooted in a Christian community and in our relationship with Christ.”

Reflections of Day 1

Key words of what God is saying to us here at Bago:

• In reflecting on the significance of the day, the delegates felt that the key message for them was “not to give up, trust God, your work is your prayer, be open, and take a path of transformation”.
• Likewise the delegates felt that the key message for Fondacio in Asia, is “the call to conversion and to go out into the world to serve the poor”.