About the Program
The Columban Partnership Program provides an opportunity for communities in Australia to meet people from a kindred community in Fiji or the Philippines and to engage in activities with them in the context of a genuine partnership. It does this by utilizing the resources, reputation and good will of the Columbans who have worked for many years in those countries. In doing this the program also continues the work of Columbans into an uncertain future.
This Program helps us discover what it means for us to be active in issues of social justice in modern times and in a cross-cultural setting. Its focus is partnership-based and solidarity-driven. It provides an experience that will help us learn about post-colonial relationships with peoples we so recently colonized. This orientation is drawn from many ideas and activities expressed and undertaken by a wide range of people engaged in social justice, with a particular emphasis on working overseas. This program seeks not to replace any of those activities but to provide a larger number of Australians with some level of contact with current activities and a deeper understanding of the realities of poverty and injustice.
The Program has three main aims:
- To develop lasting partnerships with a view to understanding mutuality in the global village, developing respect for diversity of individuals, cultures and beliefs and enjoying the fruits of a genuine cross-cultural partnership.
- To engage as many Australians as possible in a first hand experience of poverty and oppression with a view to developing a deeper understanding both of the economic and structural interdependencies that cause them and of the possibilities of Christian action that will remove them.
- To prompt program participants to engage in further activity of whatever kind.
The Program has three parts:
- An orientation program of four sessions each lasting about one and a half hours.
- A short visit (8 to 12 days) to a kindred community in Fiji or The Philippines.
- An ongoing set of partnership related activities.
The partnerships are based on personal friendships and relationships between individuals from communities in Australia, Fiji and The Philippines. We are engaging in Fiji and the Philippines because they are relatively easy to travel to from Australia, English can be used as a working language and there are Columbans in those places who have agreed to assist us in making contacts. While we will start out with visits to the Philippines and Fiji, we anticipate that, over time, the program involves visits in both directions.
We emphasise the notions of friendship, partnership and mutuality in this undertaking. We are not setting out to discover projects that we can deliver or specific problems we can address. But partnerships, suggesting equality, joint commitment to common aims, shared accountability, commitment to the long term, mutual respect and many other things, are built in lots of different ways. As the partnership develops we will engage in particular activities or projects. But we cannot know what they will be until we meet our partners and understand each other’s situations.
To get started simply call Dick Danckert on 03 5264 5254, 03 9375 9414(BH) or 0438 360 973.
Current Partnerships
Three partnerships are currently developing under the program. They were initiated by visits from Melbourne communities to, in the first instance, The Philippines in March 2003, in the second, to Fiji in April/May 2003 and in the third to Ba in Fiji in November 2003. Three further initial visits are planned in the first half of 2005. Descriptions of the visits and the ongoing activities of the partnership can be seen via the following links:
- Alibang Village and The parishes of Elwood and St Kilda West
- Raiwaqa St Vincent de Paul and the Melbourne Young Vinnies
