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Issue 77 JULY 2010
Golden Jubilee Year 1960 - 2010

Comings and Goings

 

Bon Voyage!       

Fergal Mawe from Co. Kerry will soon leave for his assignment with Fr. Shay Cullen’s PREDA project in the Philippines. Fergal completed the VC training programme in February 2010. We wish you the very best Fergal!

                                                          

Welcome Home!

Marian Farrell is now home from her teaching assignment in Kenya. We look forward to seeing you in the VC office soon Marian!

                       

 

Home on Holidays!           

Ashling Foley is currently home on holidays from her work in South Africa.

Pat Mooney will also be home for a short stay.

We look forward to catching up with you both!

                                                             

AGM 2010

This year’s AGM will be held on Sat. 2nd Oct. 2010 commencing with Eucharist at

2.00 p.m.  Invitations and agenda will follow.

                          

 

FUNDRAISING EVENTS

Would you like a weekend away?
Coordinated Parish Promotions Programme 2010

Our next PPP weekend is on Saturday 21st – 22nd August.

We need more people to come on board to help with our PPP visits! We need speakers, collectors, drivers, etc.

Why not sign up and get a lovely weekend away (while also helping VC!)?

 

Garda Vetting for VC Members on PPP
Remember that all those who participate in PPP must firstly complete a Garda Vetting Form. These are available from the VC office.
If you need any further clarification on this, please free to contact Colette in the VC office.
Further information is also available at www.dublindiocese.ie

                                                              

                     September Monday Open Door at VC

Monday Open Door

As part of our Strategic Planning Process last year, we realised that, while we here in the VC Organising team at home are very active and busy on various committees, supporting our mission, aims and objectives, we also need to put time and energy into our own group life, communications and personal nourishment and inspiration. So we decided to have an open evening on the First Monday of each month for all involved in the home team and we called it Monday Open Door, inviting everyone, with a special welcome for those who have returned from their missionary journeys or are home on holiday. In fact it was Tuesday Open Door at times because of Bank Holiday Mondays!

The experience has been a very positive one for those who have attended, with some very special occasions where we welcomed old friends, in Ireland at the time and caught up on their lives and current areas of work and mission. This has encouraged and inspired us and helped us to feel motivated to keep going. At other times we have had quieter evenings of chat, prayer and sharing, enjoying being together and recharging our energies, reinforcing the belief that there is more to VC than simply a training course or a sending agency, which of course are important aspects of our mission. As we said in our Strategic Plan, we are ‘a lay missionary association, a community of believers, united with Christ, in His mission in the world.’ As a community of believers it has been good to gather in this our Jubilee Year and share and support each other as we listen to where the Spirit is leading us in the future. Why not come and join us?

September is one of those times of new beginnings and after a rather quiet summer season, we are ready for a new start with our Monday Open Door on Monday 6th September from 5.30 onwards. By a lucky coincidence we were delighted to hear that Pat Mooney will be arriving in Ireland just in time with his co-worker Mr. Yannai, with whom he will be visiting some schools in the Meath Diocese. Mr. Yannai is the Country Representative for Caritas Thailand in Myanmar, and we were happy to invite him to share his experiences and the work of the National Catholic Commission for Migrants in Thailand as well as talking about the work in Myanmar. As Pat’s time at home is short and busy this will be a good chance for anyone who wishes to come along to catch up with him and meet Mr. Yannai.

                                                                       

 

                                Contract Role at Viatores Christi
                          Suitably Experienced Person Required
                             to Assist With Project Applications
                                 Under New Funding Schemes

Job Outline
VC is hoping to recruit a person with development expertise and an understanding of missionary development work to prepare project applications under two new funding schemes. It is necessary to have significant overseas development experience, be competent in project proposal writing and budget preparation. The position will include liaising with our mission partners in Ireland and overseas. It is approximately a three month contract.

Personal Specification
Development expertise and understanding of missionary /development work.
Ability to evaluate projects in line with funding guidelines and best practice.
Competency with Budget and Narrative reports, attentive to detail.
Excellent inter personal skills.
Ability to work on ones own.
Ability to work to deadline.
Team player.
Familiarity with MS Office (Word, Excel).
Experience in a wide range of development projects would be an advantage.

Please send covering letter and CV to info@viatoreschristi.com Tel: 01 868 9986

Application Closing Date: Friday 27 August 2010

                                                                            

 

Jubilee T.V. Studio Mass                            

RTE have agreed to let us have a special live Studio Mass to

celebrate our Golden Jubilee. The date for this Mass has now been changed to Sunday 10th of October, at RTE’s request, instead of Sunday 17th as previously advertised.

Further details willbe available soon.

 

                                                       

    

Missionary Co-operation Plan (MCP) in the USA

This Programme is the American equivalent of our Co-ordinated Parish Promotions Programme (CPPP) here in Ireland by which we are assigned a Diocese or part of a diocese each year by the IMU in which to do Mission Awareness, Recruitment and Fundraising. Thanks to Therese Osborne, Viatores Christi has participated in the MCP which is co-ordinated by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the U.S. for a number of years now.
In practice this means that each autumn we send an application to over a hundred Dioceses there, in the hope of being invited to speak in some parishes and raise awareness of our missionary work and also make an appeal for funds. It is a bit of a lottery, some years we are invited by one or more Dioceses and at others we do not get any invitations.
This year we were invited by the Diocese of Orlando in Florida and we would like to thank Dave Deegan, who travelled up from his mission in Guatemala in July to do the talks for us. Dave spent three weekends in Orlando, and visited three parishes there , the Epiphany and Our Lady of Hope Parishes in Port Orange and St. Jude’s in Ocala. He got a great welcome and hospitality from all three parishes and we are very grateful to them for inviting VC and especially to Dave for giving us so much of his time. Dave tells us that the congregations were smaller than usual at this time of year because many people go north in the summer to avoid the heat in Florida and come back in the winter.

                                                      

 

Regional Viatores Christi Groups

Another resolution from our Strategic Plan for the next 5 years was the idea of setting up Regional VC Groups in various parts of the country. The great turn out of members and friends from over the past 50 years at our Jubilee Dinner in April, was really encouraging and their enthusiasm to stay in touch and be involved was very hopeful.
We were also encouraged by the participation of members of the Resource Committee, which was set up by the late Hugh Brady, R.I.P. for people who had done our training course, but for various reasons had not taken up a missionary assignment and has been supporting the work of VC in various ways over the past 6 years. Members of this group and many others like them, as well as returned members are located all over the country and it is hoped that they will form the nucleus of the Regional Groups.

We realise that it is not easy for people to keep in touch when most of our activity is centred in Dublin. In fact VC has had regional groups in the past in various parts of the country such as Cork, Limerick, Galway and the North so it is not an entirely new departure. The hope is to gradually get these Regional Groups going over the next few years and it is anticipated that they will evolve in their own way and nourish and support the members to live out their missionary vocation in the Ireland of today. If you would like to get involved or have any ideas please contact Sally Roddy who is hoping to get this initiative off the ground in the near future.

                                                         

 

Upcoming Information Seminars    

DUBLIN
Saturday 28th August 2010
11.00am – 2.00pm
Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre
27-31 O’Connell Street Upper
                     Dublin 1

LIMERICK
Monday 30th August 2010
7.30pm – 9.30pm
Room SG3 in Summerville House, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.

CORK
Tuesday 31st August 2010 7.30pm – 9.30pm
SMA Parish Centre, Wilton, Cork

DUNDALK
Tuesday 31st August 2010 7.30pm – 9.30pm
Armagh Diocesan Pastoral Centre,The Magnet, Dundalk
GALWAY
Tuesday 31st August 2010 7.00pm – 9.00pm
Unit 9 Westside Business Ctr., Seamus Quirke Rd., Galway

ATHLONE
Thursday 2nd September 2010 7.30pm – 9.30pm
Youth Resource Centre, 8 Connaught Street, Athlone

BELFAST
Saturday 4th September 2010 2.30pm – 4.30pm
St. John’s, 470 Falls Road, Belfast, BT12 6EN

                                              

 

VMM Walk in Solidarity with the 'ACT NOW ON 2015' campaign

Come join VMM in a solidarity walk to the Hellfire Club, Montpelier Hill, Dublin on the 28th of August 2010. VMM is playing its part in highlighting the importance of tackling global poverty and the need for Ireland to deliver on its overseas aid promise.

With only five years until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on governments to engage constructively in preparations for a high-level meeting from 20-22 September 2010 to review progress towards the achieving these and other international development targets.

Please contact Deirdre, VMM, Telephone 6334421, to register and for more information.

We urge our national government to heed our call for a renewed focus on sustainable development. The ACT NOW on 2015 campaign is calling on the government to:
- Announce binding annual targets to achieve 0.7% by 2015 at the latest
- Enact legislation to guarantee Ireland's aid commitment
VMM firmly believe in a world where sustainable holistic human development is achievable. We believe that the only way to achieve global peace and harmony is through the promotion of human rights and respect for the planet and all its inhabitants. We believe that if we have been entrusted with the future of our planet and her limited resources, we must morally obligate ourselves to champion social, spiritual and environmental justice.

 

                                      Overseas Reports     

Liz Lawne - Haiti

Liz from Co. Donegal, recently took up an assignment in Haiti. Liz, an art teacher who worked in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin has already spent a summer working in Haiti. She is now on an assignment with Our Little Brothers and Sisters in Haiti and hopes to set up an arts and crafts income generation project.

“I am happy to be back in Haiti. I was delayed in the Dominican Republic as an urgent package of chemotherapy medicine was coming in from Germany. As they had no one to take it across they asked me to hang on until it came and take it with me. I was put on a special UN flight on Thursday the 29th July and delivered it to the Hospital in Tabarre. So I guess technically it was work!

It also meant I did not have to pay for the flight or my heavy bags! I started work in Kay Kristine on Monday.”

Helen Flaherty - Zambia

Helen, from Dublin, took up an assignment in Zambia in March 2009.

“I attended a workshop on Managing Projects along with many of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts. It took place within Bauleni Street Kids Project over four days. I found it very informative and interesting and I feel it will be very valuable to me in the future.

I thought you might like to see this picture taken to-day of the 16+ special needs students wearing the Choir Uniforms which they dyed and made.”

Special Report

Brazil
By Andrea Grainger

I came to work with street children in Rio in October 2006 after years of working as a marketing and communications manager in a variety of industries. I was happy that my CV was sufficient to permit me have a 'year out' from the world of business to work with babies, children and teenagers while living in a country with as much crazy devotion to soccer as myself. That was four years ago and I fell deeply in love with a city that stuns me with its beauty and ugliness.

I have been here so long that I have gradually gotten used to the inexplicable violence and lack of justice or human rights that I deal with on a daily basis. I know why I stay though, and that is simply the children here. Children here are cheeky from birth, firstly they are almost born walking and definitely are born laughing. The worst conditions they live in, the cheekier and more affectionate they are.

Toddlers are hugely sociable, secure in themselves and independent from the get-go, largely to the situations they are born into, typically single mothers with little capacity to care for, feed or educate their children. They are extremely funny and sarcastic and a pleasure to work with. Children here make it very easy to forget all the sadness of the city.

I lived with toddlers and young pregnant mothers for the first two and a half years that I was here while working everyday on the street with teenage boys. The communities that I have worked with on the street have been the best experiences of my life, and while I do not work directly work on the street at the moment, I am in touch with a lot of the teenagers from the last few years that I became close to.

Friendship has often replaced a work relationship and on a bad day I will hit the streets to cheer myself up. I have experienced so much loyalty and friendship from people that at face value have little to offer except unconditional love and understanding. It is this community of people, that have nothing except for self-assurance, self-respect and strength, that keep me here.

I now work, focussing on organising support for our various projects, writing grant proposals etc. I have done this for the last 12 months and while I realise the benefit for the charity, I yearn to be back on the streets and really miss being with the children and the teenagers on a day to day basis. It is a conflict for me, years of marketing experience have given me this opportunity to work in fundraising and marketing but the more time passes the more my mind is resolved to start studying and qualify myself to work directly with the children in a professional qualified capacity so as to have more to offer than just a shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen.