Caritas India and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) convened a joint meeting for the Regional Fora to set out a new phase of the Regional Fora Accompaniment programme.

The two-day meeting on 26th and 27th October 2022 at Caritas India New Delhi was attended by 10 Regional Fora Directors and one assistant Forum Director along with 12 Regional Fora Co-ordinators.

The meeting was also an opportunity to take stock of the progress and results of the previous phase and plan for the new phase. The Assistant Executive Director of Caritas India Fr. (Dr.) Jolly Puthenpura welcomed all the participants and encouraged them to journey together to implement the Strategy Plan and develop a Safeguarding Policy at the diocesan and partner levels.

Executive Director of Caritas India, Fr. (Dr.) Paul Moonjely shared the relevance of safeguarding and protection. He said, there is an increasing demand from donors and the global community towards Safeguarding principles in the current global and national context. While emphasizing the cardinal principles and values of the Church, he insisted on putting these values into practice and thinking beyond. He suggested Resilience building, Preventive approach, and Client-oriented approach as three approaches to building a safe and positive culture. Every organisation and unit of the Church working on this issue should be equipped with knowledge on safeguarding and protection. Respecting the Dignity and rights of each person is of prime importance.

During the discussion on the Strategic Plan, Fr. Paul mentioned the four key strategic pillars as progressive in nature which help in transforming and developing a humane approach at the organisational and individual levels. While reflecting on the current situation, he summarised the challenges into 4Cs: Covid, Climate, Conflict and Cost and proposed 4Ss: Solidarity, Social Justice, Social friendship, and Spirituality, to overcome them and build pathways for a better future. He urged the Regional Fora directors to think of the areas of interventions such as Health, Climate Change depending upon the relevance and applicability of the issue in their region.

He also shared about upcoming Caritas India events like the International Development Dynamics course, Assessment study of the three-tier system, the relevance of these three-tier systems, Diamond Jubilee events, National Assembly etc.

During the two-day meeting, each region presented their achievements and plan of action for the next phase, related to safeguarding and strategy plan Implementation. The meeting helped the Regional Fora to exchange their achievements, challenges, solutions and innovative practices from their respective regions and generate cross learnings. Ms. Shimray, Lead-Strategy Plan gave an input session on the Strategy Plan and how to mainstream Key strategy Pillars for a better understanding of the four pillars, especially to new coordinators and clarified the doubts related to reporting.

Regional Fora has been actively promoting thematic issue base collectivisation and alliance/ movement building processes on two thematic areas namely 1) Children’s Parliament under the umbrella of CHILD RIGHTS and 2) Small Holder farmers’ issues. During the meeting they had theme-based group work and based on the identified issues of the previous period developed a common plan under each theme plan as part of way forward for strengthening Small Holders Farmers clubs/groups and Children’s Parliament for engaging with the duty bearers for policy advocacy and contributing to creating a child-friendly and progressive environment in the community.

The directors also interacted with Catholic Relief Services, Executive Director Mr. Senthil Kumar and expressed their happiness for the support provided by CRS and for initiating a safe culture through Safeguarding policies. Mr. Senthil applauded the efforts of the Regional Fora for their collective efforts and encouraged them to focus on Safeguarding initiatives and strengthen our commitment to journey together. He inquired about suggestions and feedback from the Regional Fora to build and support the organisation’s development at various levels.

Fr. Jolly, presided over the open forum to address the concerns shared by Regional Fora directors. He shared the relevance of the Strategy plan and Safeguarding principles for the activities of the Church to remain relevant and bring about sustainability in the interventions. The meeting concluded with Fr. Jolly thanking and appreciating the Regional Fora for their commitment to the continued efforts in the community emancipation.