Regional meetings to implement the “Stand Up, Speak Up & Act” Project
The Secretariat for Education and Evangelization met virtually from 22nd February to 1st March 2021 with the “liaison” persons in charge of monitoring the “Stand Up, Speak Up & Act” Project in the Marist Provinces and Districts.
The “Stand up, Speak Up & Act” project, launched in November 2019, emanated from the call of the XXII General Chapter “to develop initiatives for the participation and empowerment of children and young people” and seeks to “develop a platform to support our apostolates and areas of action, for the direct listening and empowerment of children and young people” (General Administration Strategic Plan).
The project’s first stage invites children and young people to contribute to the elaboration of a document (Guide on the right to child and youth Participation in the Marist Institute) that promotes them been listened to, by the Institute at different levels (local, national, regional…).
In 5 different meetings facilitated by Br Carlos Rojas, Br Mark Omede and Mr Diugar Madera, 40 Marists of Champagnat were gathered in representation of 19 provinces and 1 District, having the following objectives on the agenda:
- To offer a space for dialogue on the strategies that the participants have implemented to approach the “Stand Up, Speak Up & Act” Project.
- To discover, on the basis of the project, the challenges ahead and proposals from different perspectives and contexts.
- To propose follow-up mechanisms (at different levels: local, regional, global) for the successful implementation of the initiative.
The fruitful dialogue and discussions during the meetings demonstrated passion and zeal for the Project, as all were willing to continue moving it forward. The Regions shared from their works at different levels and that showed unity in our diversity of which the Secretariat capitalizes on to enrich the document as the first official document for the Institute on how best to listen to the voices of Children and Young People in order to incorporate them into decisions about their lives.
The meetings discussed the next steps and set some deadlines to enable the Secretariat to work with all the contributions for a final version on the Guide. April 30th was fixed for the final sending of all contributions from the Provinces and Districts. The final Document will be presented to the General Council in September 2021.
Of a great interest in the course of the Regional meetings was a video on the Project which came as a contribution from the young people and educators in the Province of Santa Maria de Los Andes (Bolivia, Chile, Peru). This video which has subtitles in the English was one of the fruits of the work done by this Province with about six thousand children and young people involved in this Project.