Planning for the Future

Globalisation and its criteria today clashes with the Cambodian way of life and its society, still broken in its social fabric and suffering from poverty and a fragile education system. A great challenge ahead of us is to be prepared for this globalisation in a positive way and help the Cambodian people to face it; how to empower them by means of faith values and how to support the communities with the economic means to face all the challenges that lie ahead. We work by weaving the social fabric and not just by mending the broken parts of it.

A very important point in this effort to rebuild the social fabric is to understand that the family and the community is broken but that we cannot go back to the times before the war: Our aim is to rebuild this society by adjusting to the new times and a new world. The same applies to the way we understand the role of the Church in this country: it is not by restoring what was destroyed and gaining lost time, but to take this opportunity to go to the fresh sources of the Gospel and from there regenerate the communities.

• During the year ahead we naturally have to continue similar activities. While serving the growth of faith of our Catholic communities, the priorities of all of us remain with the children, the youth, the disabled and the vulnerable.
• From a pastoral point of view, programs of pastoral formation, such as the seminars for catechists, the literacy and Cambodian dance lessons also continue. But more important to us is to link celebrations to the lives of the people. We promote participation and the planning of these celebrations.
• Formation of leaders is also an important point, but this formation is linked to the values of reconciliation and peace within and beyond the community. It is not so important to give formation to leaders but to concentrate on the way this is done.
• A priority area is to promote basic education and literacy for the children and to help the youth finish their studies, at least high school, with special attention to people with disabilities.
• In the social action field we also plan to increase our cooperation with Caritas Cambodia, looking together at points of convergence.
• We wish to develop friendship and cooperation with other faiths (mainly the Buddhists and the Muslims) especially with those who are involved in responding to the needs of the people and who offer their temples and mosques not only as traditional meeting points but also as centers aiming to restore the social fabric.
• There are still church or community center buildings to be completed or begun in the next months, as also the building of schools and classrooms.
• Land for other fast growing communities must be acquired. Involvement in purchasing and developing land for poorer communities and other agricultural activities will continue