29 Nov Meeting on non-formal education programs. America
On Saturday November 18, 2023 we had our first meeting of ACI NON -FOMAL EDUCATION
to which we convoked Sisters and Laity committed to this field of education in various
contexts in America. Our objective was to get to know one another and to begin to make
progress as an ACI NETWORK IN NON-FORMAL EDUCATION., responding to the call of Pope
Francis to implement a Global Educational Compact and to the Decree on Education in our
recent General Congregation (GC XXI) in which we were invited to prioritize, among other
things:
Networking, being interconnected with among ourselves and with others, creating
spaces for mutual learning, to share experiences and materials and to generate
processes of reflection, commitment, and evaluation as we search together.
The meeting was held on Zoom with the participation of about 26 people from the following
contexts/works:
Athens, United States
Manta and El Guasmo (Proyecto Raices Negras), Ecuador
Caracoli (Fundacion Nuestra Señora de los Robles) Colombia
Proyecto De Tu Mano (Montevideo) Uruguay
El Cruce (Santiago del Estero) and Barrio Nuevo (Buenos Aires) Argentina
Our sharing was focused on the 5 lines of action proposed in the V ELADE (Latin American
Meeting on Education), held last ocober in Arequipa, Peru. After a brief overview of the
history and significance of these meetings, we presented each line and took the opportunity
to reflect upon and contextualize them in the actual reality of our non-formal educational
centers, an area which has a different character from that of our schools. which nevertheless
we try to put into practice, THE PEDAGOGY OF THE HEART.
Here we present each of these lines with some resonances that arose during the meeting
TO REINFORCE THE INNER BEING. TO LEARN TO PAUSE. TO COUNT ON SPACES OF SELF-
KNOWLEDGE, CONFIDENCE AND TRUST
On this point we recognize that we are in process, trying to forge a pathway and to work in
the socio-emotional area. But with the need to reinforce this process, to organize our
practices, and to continue to search for strategies in order to form and to form ourselves in
this field.TO WORK ON THE CARE FOR THE SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL BOND. We want to form citizens
who are responsible, fraternal and socially active, committed to the care of our common
home. To educate in non-violence, in leadership and the capacity to pause, to look and be
affected by their context.
We discover that in our centers we have projects and practices that try to beautify the
environment, to strengthen the social fabric and to encourage attitudes of knowledge and care
for nature through means of vegetable gardens… But that we are not organizing, including thefamilies and the local communities, to generate better and more habits. In more than one place
we are concerned about the violence in the surroundings and the need to continue educating for
reconciliation and peace. Emotional education again becomes important in this line.
.
TO GENERATE PROCESSES OF ACCOMPANIMENT FOR THE FAMILIES, WHO ARE THE ONES
WHO HAVE THE PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILDREN. Here
we find ourselves trying to understand, to get to know and to strengthen the adults in
complex contexts… In several places we are implementing different strategies in order to
share, empower, form and generate relationships of trust… But we still have a long way to
go. We feel challenged to generate more opportunities for meeting with the families where
we share experiences and points of view, to know their needs better and offer opportunities
for formation, commitment and motivation.COMPREHENSIVE TRAINING AND ACCOMPANIMENT OF TEACHERS. Ongoing formation in
self- knowledge, in listening, in conflict resolution and in the educational context from the
perspective of the ACI style of education.
We acknowledge that we are in process, trying to form teams but with difficulties of schedules
and daily unforeseen incidents that sometimes reduce our moments of encounter. With the
challenge of forming identity and the awareness that reality requires that we form ourselves to
respond to the new poverties. Wanting to grow in the care of our educators and at the same
time to broaden awareness of belonging to a larger community… We want to grow as a network.
We are neither alone nor isolated in the mission that we carry out in each center.TO EMBODY THE PEDAGOGY OF THE HEART. This line generates sentiments of gratitude,
hope and enthusiasm. And it challenges us to form ourselves more in the charism we have
received, to grow in a common identity, to apply as much as possible “this pedagogy that
comes naturally to us” in each situation and context: we receive a great gift that still leaves
us much room for development. We want to reach more persons with this style of
education.
We are grateful for the sharing and the path that the team that prepared the V ELADE traced out for
us and facilitated… Our meeting was short, but it left us with the desire for MORE. And, above all, it
helped us to vibrate with one and the same mission and HEART.
There remains the desire to grow as a network at Institute level, to go in depth into our experiences
in our daily realities and to continue to search for ways to organize some practices according to each
context. For 2024 we propose to try to increase these spaces of encounter that do so much good.
But we remain with the certainty that, as resounded from the first moment WE ARE ALREADY ON
THE WAY!
Agustina Galarce aci
