Regional Fora Coordinators’ Meeting was held on 23-24 September 2019 at Caritas India, Delhi. The purpose of the meeting was to review the rollout of Key Strategic Pillars (KSP) and Catholic Social Teachings (CST) and to discuss the way forward.

The meeting was attended by sixteen Regional Forum Coordinators from across fourteen Regional Fora. The meeting was opened by the remark by Fr Jolly, Assistant Executive Director, Caritas India. He appreciated the work of the coordinators and mentioned that the coordinators are the key players in the Regional Forum. The aim of the Forum should be to contribute to the agenda of the church and Caritas India i.e. building up lives of the poor.

Post the remark, the coordinators from each Regional Forum presented the key activities around the roll-out of the Key Strategic Pillars (KSPs) and Catholic Social Teachings(CST) its outcome and challenges faced in the process during the past one year. Some of the activities carried out were the dissemination of KSPs and CST through workshops and sharing with the DSSSs, partner organisations, faith-based organisations, the staff and students of schools and colleges, women leaders of the commission, parish council and the duty-bearers. So far the CST has been translated into eight vernacular languages – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Manipuri, Mizo, Khasi, Bengali – to make it handy at the grassroots workers and communities.

Some of the highlights on KSP roll out include the following:

• Awareness on various social security schemes has been created amongst the community as a result community has availed various schemes such as widow pensions, job cards, etc. Around 1800 volunteers have been or been mobilised across 14 regions. Flood Relief materials and funds has also been mobilised in various regions.
• Dialogue and networking have been initiated with the duty-bearers on implementing various schemes at the ground level and also to promote the KSPs.
• Some Regional Fora have signed MoUs with various schools to encourage peace activities, campaigns have been organised on the ban of the use of plastic and campaign called Vriksha Ropan has been initiated in schools wherein saplings were planted by the students as part of dialogue with nature.
• Orientation workshops have also been organised on Organic Farming.
• Children Parliament has been mobilised which act as an agent of change in the community.

Way Forward:

Fr. Paul, Executive Director, appreciated the effort made by all the Regional Fora in Rolling out the Key Strategic Pillars and CST with the local partners. He mentioned that with the help of the team and Directors, indicators in accordance with the strategic plan need to be developed and validated.

Key priorities for next year were also discussed and planned for the implementation of KSPs and CST, such as capacity building and handholding support for the dissemination of KSPs and CST to laity and religious congregations, strengthening the Lenten Campaign and to develop Regional Strategy Plan (RSP) in alignment with Caritas India national KSPs.

This meeting concluded on a positive note as the Co-ordinators shared that a clear picture has been drawn on the roll-out and their role and responsibilities. This meeting enabled Regional Fora Co-ordinators with a platform for co-learning. The coordinators were energised and motivated to achieve further goals.