Meeting of the Network of Provincial Coordinators for Volunteers
On 27 April a virtual meeting of the Network of Provincial Volunteer Coordinators (CPVs) was held, with the presence from the General Administration of Brothers Luis Carlos (Vicar General), Óscar Martín (General Councillor), Ángel Diego and Valdicer Fachi (Cmi). Matteo Cavicchioli from Cmi was also present.
In addition to making possible the meeting and exchange among the participants, the priorities established by the Network in November 2019, when it was officially created, were worked on. The priorities are: Training; Accompaniment; Advocacy and Communication; Nexus Management System; Good Practices; Financial Resources.
The impact of the pandemic
Interprovincial volunteering is being strongly impacted by COVID-19. At the beginning of the pandemic, most volunteers were repatriated, and in security. Training and support initiatives for future volunteers were reviewed and redefined. Some processes were even temporarily interrupted.
On the other hand, something new was born through many creative and innovative initiatives for the development of interprovincial and, above all, provincial and local volunteering. Virtual volunteering was born and the number of specific initiatives to help in concrete situations resulting from the pandemic grew: production and distribution of masks, collection and delivery of food, personal hygiene products… So many educators and volunteers dedicate time and energy so that education could be accessible to digitally excluded children and young people. Solidarity and service to others, especially those most in need, had no holiday or lockdown.
As a network of PCVs, we know that international and interprovincial volunteering “is going through a winter time”, a period in which the roots grow silently in the earth waiting for spring. As a Network, we are building the foundations for the new one, renewing the processes of formation and accompaniment for the sending and receiving of volunteers.
The needs are many. The cries and urgencies of children and young people throughout the world challenge us and mobilise us as a Marist family to be of service, to dedicate our time and skills to those who are most in need. Volunteering is a living force in the Institute and in society.
Networking
In his final greeting to the participants, Br. Luis Carlos underlined:
“Networking is our new normal, it is an opportunity that the chapter believed in. We do it as a gesture of humanity and also as a gesture of faith. We remember the Lord Jesus, in the Gospel, who invites us to love God with all our heart and our neighbour as ourselves. The Pope challenges us: “it is God’s love that makes us always recognise in others a neighbour, a brother or sister to love”. Thanks to this “heart full of the Gospel”, the help, the presence, the caravanning… maintains its human dimension and does not become depersonalised. And for this reason, volunteers do not replace, but contribute to giving a human and Christian face to our cultures and societies, our neighbourhoods and centres, our projects and peripheries.
The global family has an equally global expression in global volunteering. I invite you to “continue with passion your mission, seeking all possible and constructive ways to awaken the need to commit yourselves to the common good, in support of the weak and the poor”.
Thank you to all the Provincial Volunteer Coordinators and their teams for your service, and for proving that, as a Network, we can do more and better. Like Champagnat, we are called to go decisively and quickly to the Montagnes of today with the awareness that “all the Dioceses of the world are in our plans”.