From February 23 to 27, the regional teams of MAGRE (Environment, Risk and Emergency Management) and Integral Ecology and Identity and Spirituality met in Bogotá for face-to-face workshops for their teams. Approximately 50 delegates from 17 countries gathered for a day of reflection and planning.

The meeting allowed both teams to work on their specific objectives, but also provided spaces for joint sessions, underlining that Cáritas' technical action cannot be understood without its spiritual root, and that faith is manifested in professional and timely service in the face of suffering.

One body, two fundamental missions

The MAGRE and Integral Ecology team focused on strengthening the emergency response through collective reflection on community-based risk management. The central objective was the appropriation of tools so that humanitarian aid is articulated and coherent with the regional protocol of the network.

For its part, the Identity, Spirituality and Parish Animation team worked to promote a personal encounter with God and with the poorest. An important milestone was the enrichment of the modules of the future diploma in the area, defining methodologies and practical exercises.

An important moment of the meeting focused on the shared day of the two teams for a workshop on Advocacy and Safeguarding.

Commitment and Reunion

Catherine Mella, regional reference for the MAGRE team, highlighted the importance of presence for operational effectiveness:

It has been a space for reunion... We have managed to agree on how we are going to act as the Caritas Network in the face of the major emergencies that our region has today. A very diverse region, but united by vulnerabilities. We don't just stop at the answer; We are advancing in community-based risk reduction so that communities are more resilient and prepared to take care of our Common Home.

From the perspective of the identity mission, the P. Francisco de Asís de la Rosa Patrón, leader of the Identity and Spirituality team, shared the progress in the training:

We are already organizing a diploma in identity and spirituality that will take between 80 and 100 hours of work. We want each country to have a national team responsible for this task. We don't want to stop at just developing material; The objective is to generate processes in each national Cáritas so that the creation of Cáritas groups in the parishes is encouraged and strengthened.

From this meeting we can understand the mission of Cáritas in Latin America and the Caribbean with a more technical and human response to disasters, and a parish structure strengthened by the spirituality of the current Magisterium. The meeting in Bogotá reaffirms that, faced with the challenges of the region, the Cáritas Network walks together to take care of the territory and its most exposed communities.