PACIFIC ASIA REGIONAL CONFERENCE

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PACIFIC ASIA REGIONAL CONFERENCE

• Presentation to the International
• Lasallian Assembly

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ASIA-PACIFIC PROFILE
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POPULATION

• Covers 48 countries
• 5 sub-regions
• South Asia
• South East Asia
• North East Asia
• Central Asia, and
• The Pacific
• Approximately 3.5 billion people or 58 of
  worlds population live in these regions
• Total population will increase to approximately
  700 million between 2000 - 2015

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MULTI-FAITH REGION

• Cradle of some of the great religions of the
  world
• Buddhism
• Hinduism
• Sikhism
• Confusionism, Taoism etc
• Large Islamic population (more than 800 million)

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URBAN POOR

• Rural to urban migration - on-going phenomenon in
  large cities
• International migration from developing countries
  to high-growth industrialized countries also
  becoming significant.
• This accelerated migration often causes
  environmental problems (e.g. rapid slum
  concentration)
• Urban poor, have to contend with a lack of access
  to basic public services such as water supply,
  sanitation, and health care.

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URBAN POOR

• More disadvantaged than rural poor because as
  they cannot grow their own food and rely upon the
  cash economy for survival.
• Livelihood from environmentally hazardous
  scavenging of solid wastes due to lack of
  employment opportunities, exposing them to a wide
  range of health and safety hazards.
• WHO and UNICEF estimates that by 2015, 595
  million more people will be living in informal
  housing, slums, and shanties.

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YOUTH AND POVERTY

• Estimated that around 130 million
• young people between the
• ages of 15 24 years in South Asia,
• East Asia and the Pacific, live on less than
• US 1 a day.
• About 100 million are undernourished.
• Poverty - the main reason behind the estimated
  210 million children between the ages of 5 15
  years around the world who are engaged in
  full-time employment.
• Asia accounts for 60 of all child workers
  because of its higher population.
• Many end up working as slaves, miners,
  sex-workers, and even soldiers.

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GENDER DISCRIMINATION

• Gender discrimination takes different forms.
• denial of access to education and health care
• longer working hours at lower pay
• nutritional deprivation and discrimination in
  terms of the right of access to land, credit and
  employment and,
• physical and psychological abuse.

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LASALLIAN EDUCATIONAL MISSION
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SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS Realities, Trends,
Obstacles, challenges.

• Study conducted in 2004 on the Viability and
  Vitality of the PARC Region
• Involved a total of 122 schools,101 non-formal
  training programs, 22 orphanages / dormitories
  currently run by Brothers and Partners in the
  Asia Pacific region
• Total number of clients 159,653 persons
• Period of study from 1993-2004

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Results of Study

• Trends
• Increase in the number of schools particularly
  HK, India and the Philippines
• Increase in non-formal training program,
  orphanages / dormitories particularly in India.
• Implications
• Need for a corresponding increase in service
  personnel, both Brothers and Partners

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Current Realities

• Growing gap between rich and poor, diversity of
  the poor in the region and the emerging new poor
• Large percentage of students, teachers and staff
  are non-catholic.
• Still very Brother-centric mindset
• Inability and resistance of both the Brothers and
  Partners to adapt and create new ministries

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Current Realities

• Lack of financial and human resources for mission
  and formation
• Work is within communities that are multi-faith
• Political barriers to educational mission
• Consumerism, individualism, loss of respect for
  human rights, assertion of ethnic identity,
  religious fundamentalism and apathy.

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Challenges

• To redefine and clarify the Lasallian Mission
  with reference to the new faces of the poor
• To listen to the voice of the poor through new
  and creative client-centered initiatives that are
  flexible and respectful of local conditions
• To develop in our clientele skills for social,
  political and cultural analysis
• To develop a process for authenticating the
  Mission
• To move away from Brothers-centered to
  Mission-Centered and from Shared-Mission to
  Our-Mission

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Challenges

• To successfully promote teaching as a vocation.
• To successfully work towards a greater sharing of
  Lasallian resources and restrategizing the
  structure of PARC eg. Mission councils
• To develop a common understanding and definition
  of Association

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VISION of PARC

• To bring about educational reform that will
  concretely address the issues of the poor and
  social justice.

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VISION of PARC

• To work towards developing a spirituality that
  will cut across religious and ethnic boundaries.

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VISION of PARC

• To improve corporate governance of our
  educational institutions, with emphasis on
  accountability, transparency and corporate social
  responsibility.

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VISION of PARC

• To establish new partnerships that will lead to
  greater interdependence and broader participation
  of different sectors.

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ACTION STEPS

• Develop mechanisms that will disseminate
  information on social action programs in the
  region (e.g., PARC website, an e-group and a
  manual on social action).

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ACTION STEPS

• Mobilize more lay Lasallian volunteers to
  greater involvement in the mission through
  international conferences on volunteerism,
  curriculum integration, formation and support
  programs for volunteers and a volunteer
  internship program.

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ACTION STEPS

• Establish a Regional Education/ Mission Council
  that will look at the way the Lasallian
  Educational Mission is implemented in the region.
  This will run parallel with the current study of
  the restructuring of PARC.