Charism of Champagnat in the Amazon

More than forty-five Marist volunteers from Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Spain have prepared and qualified 363 teachers from the original peoples of the Peruvian Amazonia, as part of the project “A teacher for the Datem”, which was carried out from December 28 to January 31 in the heart of the jungle.   

Through the experience Datem – which bears the name of an Amazonian Province – the Marists of Champagnat have offered this year pedagogical formation to the teachers of the following indigenous communities: achuar (64 teachers), kandozi (27 teachers), wampis (37 teachers), kichwa (25 teachers), chapra (11 teachers), shawi (67 teachers), awaiún (80 teachers), and shiwilo (3 teachers).

“A teacher for the Datem”, is a Project carried out since 2012 by the University Marcelin Champagnat of Lima, Peru, with the collaboration of Marist volunteers, who every year travel to the North East of the country, to form and advice the native bilingual teachers according to the Plan of Studies.   The objective is also to “obtain that the Amazonian teachers can be an echo in each one of their schools, in their own original languages, of a qualification with Marist charism” has said Br. Bernardino Pascual Juárez. 

As a part of the Project, 32 members of the first Promotion 2018, “Saint Marcelin Champagnat” have received their degree as Bachelor in Initial Education and Primary Education.

In the same way, 140 members of the Promotion 2019 “Teacher of Datem with the heart of Marcelin Champagnat” received the degree of University Bachelor. 

The Rector of the University Marcelin Champagnat (UMCH), Br. Pablo Gonzalez Franco, named by the original peoples, honorary APU, and the whole staff of the UNCH and, collaborators of the Project Datem, feel very satisfied of a service which was already “in the mind” of Saint Marcelin, long before he was a saint, when he would say “All peoples enter in our looks and in our concerns”.