Sharing on CIAO SCUOLA* Congress in Cambodia – Seminar
June 18, 2021 – Cambodia. The Salesian
Sisters of Don Bosco had our first online Seminar. Sharing/echoing of the theme
and experiences of the CIAO SCUOLA Congress which was held on March 26 and 27,
2021. Today was a memorable day as all Salesian Educators of our four
communities (Tuol Kork, Teuk Thla,, Battambang and Phum Chreh) and 91 teachers
and FMA participated. The program was well timed and so all are motivated to
this intense learning on Salesian Educators: Advocates of the Global
Compact on Education. The method of presentation was done based on the
model of CIAO Scuola Congress in Khmer. The Keynote Address of Sr. Runita was presented
by Sr. Tang Sovathanak Mary, Human Dignity and Rights of Sr. Sarah Garcia by
Tr. Doen Sena (Teacher of Accounting at Tuol Kork – Secretarial Course),
Integral Ecology of Sr. Elena Rastello by Tr. Em Chakrya (Coordinator of Teuk
Thla – High School), Peace and Citizenship of Cardinal Zen by Tr. Vorn Champa
(Teacher of English at Teuk Thla – Food Technology and Hotel Services) and
Development and Solidarity of Bishop Pabilo by Tr. Nak Bunleak (Secretary and
Accountant of Battambang community).
The day began with the invocation of blessing from God prepared by Sr. Sreymom. Sr. Ophriini (Coordinator of youth Ministry in Cambodia) gave a short welcome talk to the participants and initiated the reason and importance of the Seminar. Sr. Jessica Salvana – Provincial of CMY gave a kick off address to the teachers. She encouraged the teachers to be open to the realities of the world in the education and formation of the young for the future.
After each talk, our Educators took an active part in sharing their insights, the new ideas received and above of dreaming of something new and feasible to put into practice. Some thought provoking ideas such as “yes, we learn and study a lot on these topics – what concrete/action steps should we commit ourselves to live it and make it happen? Again, in our education, we have the topics of Peace, Human Rights, Solidarity – why and how is still unrest, destruction, war in the world even in our own Asian countries?”. Sr. Tang Sovathanak gave a fitting answer to this. We need to study and reflect more on it.
Our sharing was concluded with thank you note from Sr. Maria Thao, where she thanked the day’s Emcee in Sr. Eng Sarin for her abled coordination, the speakers and all participants. Though the schedule was a bit heavy, the teachers enjoyed the learning and everyone express their sincere thanks to the well chosen topics which are very relevant and are eager to assimilate more for the coming years to work for a peaceful world. As for evaluation done through google form questionnaires, the responses of the participants are very positive and encouraging especially in this historical time of Covid-19 pandemic. Our learning day ended with a note of fun by picking up the name of a Lucky Teacher of the year 2020 - 2021.
*CIAO SCUOLA: Salesian sisters‘ Inter-provincial conference of Asia and Oceania for Educational establishments
