POTA
– New WAYS of living and loving!
The
moment we hear someone pronouncing a word POTA we immediately remember in our
Indian context a place called Potta in Kerala where persons from various walks
of life throng for a spiritual renewal at the Divine Retreat Centre managed by the
Religious Priests of Vincentian Congregation under Irinjalakuda diocese. A few
years back as the Parish Priest of Unteshwari when I went to Kerala to visit
the houses of our migrant Catholics of our Parish, I too visited the centre and
witnessed how people devoutly attending such a renewal programme according to
the choice of their languages. This year, in the month of June 2015, five of
our youth too participated in such a soul searching spiritual programme in
order to get gripped with Jesus our Master! Well, I was well pleased to listen
to them on their arrival at our Unteshwari. I normally appreciate and promote
our faithful to participate in any such spiritual inward journey programme
anywhere, especially to go and attend at least once in their life time at this
centre and to encounter the persons and places of such “God’s own country” and
to move forward gradually to know, love and follow Jesus MORE fervently in
their life journey. Such orientations are at work in our Parish to the local
and migrant Catholics and Catechumens for I am ordained and sent as a
missionary to bloom where I am planted and to become a Pastor for All.
Let
me state now here the Faith story of my Rejoicing Mission at Unteshwari while
we the Religious persons celebrate this year as the Year of Consecrated Life.
A Call
and Gift to Serve
It
was last July 2014 when I was chosen from India to participate at Celje,
Slovenia for 8 days in the 6th Frater Intercontinental meeting by Fraternidad
Cristiana Intercontinental de Personas con Discapacidad (Frater), as
one of the intercontinental committee members from Asia (other two from China
and Taiwan). By this, I was to serve as an advisor and companion in this intercontinental
forum and accepted humbly as God’s grace received on this lowly servant.
It
is worth mentioning at this moment about this Frater organization. It is an
international, private, faith-based association under the approval of
Pontifical Council of Laity since 1995. As a Christian movement, it is made up
of, and managed by people with disabilities who have taken control of their
lives, struggle to live in dignity, and accept to live together as brothers and
sisters, in recognition of each other’s differences. It welcomes everyone, without distinction, in
a spirit of ecumenical and missionary openness. People without disabilities too
join Frater once they accept and embrace the message of it. As a requirement to
participate in this meeting, I had taken along with me Mr. Senma Jesangbhai
Mulabhai, a physically challenged person who serves with us on contract basis as
students counsellor in our Inclusive Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) scheme.
Having
experienced the presence and participation of myself in such an intercontinental
meeting, Mrs. Polona, one of the organizing committee members from Slovenia and
the Coordinator of the POTA Programme approached me and appreciated me with the
title - “the charming Indian” and made an appeal to build an International
Cooperation with us Jesuits here in India through their POTA Programme of
Slovenia. Thus, the actualization of such
a programme through the Gujarat Jesuits run disabled-friendly centre Unteshwari
Sammilitalayam is to be seen as the fruit of my Slovenia visit! In this context
let me present the meaning, methodology and implementation of such an exchange
programme in order to appreciate the spirit of such Slovenian youth’s inclusion
and insertion in our Indian context.
Meaning
and Methodology of POTA Programme
The
Slovenian word POTA means WAYS in English. The POTA Programme was started in
the year 2006 by the Slovenian Jesuits as one of their Youth Movement programme
under MIC - Mladinsko Informacijski Center (Youth Information Centre) at
Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia, to show their youth the new WAYS of
living and loving in various developing countries of the world. Every year
about 80 young volunteers leave their European homes by their own expenses to
about nine nations and reach out to serve all kinds of humans at their door
steps in different difficult situations and conditions.
The
overall aims of this programme are three fold –
I. To encourage
international development cooperation and aid contribution to the developing countries.
II.
To
increase and encourage intercultural exchange among the youth.
III.
To raise
awareness among the youth on global co-responsibility, solidarity and human
rights.
POTA
at Unteshwari - Kadi
From
10th – 24th July
(1 male and 6 females) and 7th – 21st August (8
females) Unteshwari was filled with such fifteen generous and committed
youngsters (age between 19 – 25) who indeed made a difference in their
pre-arranged working spots like hospital, schools, aged home and rehabilitation
centres in Kadi Block. Mornings were spent in the Religious (Madhurya Bhuvan, Sandhya
Vishram and Unteshwari) and Private
(Springdale school and Bhagyoday hospital) institutions with service-based activities,
whereas evenings were spent in encountering the ground reality of the inclusive
involvement of the Unteshwari Mission in
the villages and towns of this region. Besides, the planned guided tours to the
various Christian neighbourhood missions and other faith centres have opened
their minds and hearts to experience how God is operative in His mission
through various missionaries and persons of good will. Their presence and
participation in our celebration of life and liturgy have enthused in fact
mutually the new ways of Christian living and loving here and there. Yes. In this
way, the POTA mission has brought in a different way meaningfully the
international cooperation and interprovincial collaboration true to the spirit
of the 35th General Congregation of the Jesuits! All for His greater
glory!
God’s
Colourful Images
In
the below placed two pictures we see the beautiful and colourful Slovenian
images, who are basically the University students of various faculties, they, without
making any fuss, inserted themselves joyfully within our WAY of life by
respecting and accepting the cultural nuances of the North Gujarat Mission.
Indeed, the seven persons during the seventh month (July) and the eight persons
during the eighth month (August) have been our precious gifts who transmitted
the great human values like simplicity and solidarity with all in the diverse
communities of our Kadi block in Mehsana district. Wherever they lived and
moved, and whenever they served and encountered persons in the villages and
towns, spontaneously both the groups exchanged smiles and it was very obvious
to have the PHOTO programme within the POTA programme! Each wanted to capture
images of each other! Memorable moments of positive energy building exercises which
cannot be easily forgotten!
Group
I: Seven from Heaven!
From
Left to Right: Girish (Host); Uršula Vratuša Globočnik (Journalism) ; Veronika
Krafogel (Nursing); Jerneja Pirc (Social Pedagogy; captain); Valentina Pevec
(Medicine); Rok Pogačnik (Seminarian – 1st year of theology ); Klara Malovrh
(KG Teaching); Eva Podbregar (Medicine).
Group
II: Eight of God’s precious Sight!
From
Left to Right: Girish (Host); Lija Gantar (Literature & Japanology);
Kristina Pezdirc (Economics); Teja Sulejmanovič (Secondary Teaching); Petra
Hribar (Nursing; Captain); Katja Ravnikar (Psychology); Neja Hrovat
(Photography & Designing); Anja Stanič (Social Pedagogy); Maša Razdevšek
(Pharmacy).
Conclusion
When
most of the students of Europe wait for their summer holidays to enjoy
themselves in parks, bars and beaches, these 15 pearls decided with their own
conscience to spend meaningfully their summer vacation as volunteers for a
month in India. Blessed be their melting hearts and their motivating parents!
Each group was with
us for 15 days and then left for Kolkatta to serve in the Blessed Mother Teresa
Homes and in a School managed by a Slovenian lady Mrs. Mojca. While being with
us here in Gujarat both the groups were specially taken to Gandhi Ashram at
Sabarmati, Ahmedabad. On their return they were moved by the visit of the
Ashram and they fondly remembered the writing on the wall in the Ashram: “My
life is my message – Gandhi”. While they remember the words of our Gandhi Bapu,
the Father of our Nation, do we see something unique in these young minds the
inner freedom to choose the new WAYS of living and loving in our Indian
context? Yes. Truly their life too, as we encountered, has become a message to all
of us in our region. At this moment, though they are not physically with us
here at Unteshwari, our humble prayer for them is: May God continue to bless
them wherever they are and go, and may they continue to walk ALWAYS in His
WAYS! Amen.
Girish
Santiago, SJ
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We were together for 15 minutes in that lounge. While being with him I could feel the warmth and the genuine interest to listen to me and speak about how we need to be at the side of the needy persons. His encouraging words to commit for the Nation building and international collaboration were remarkable. Though it was a short encounter, I did experience the zealous spirit and the single mindedness in his spoken words. I could experience the simplicity and humility in his gestures. Indeed it was a grace-filled moment for me to sit at his side and to vibrate with him in Igniting Minds of the young in India. My sincere pranam and salaam to our dear late Dr. Abdul Kalam for his availability and blessings! Thanks to Mr. Amrut Patel for providing such an opportunity to meet such an eminent personality of our nation who was lovingly called as 
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean. 
