Youth Involve (YI), an initiative of Bosco Institute Jorhat, celebrated its 10th anniversary alongside the bicentennial of Don Bosco’s dream, from September 17–19 at Siloam, Umiam. Twenty-six young social entrepreneurs leading as many social projects and initiatives from Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, and their Salesian and lay mentors and coaches came together for 3 days of sharing experiences and insights, and learning from successes, failures, distractions and challenges, through presentations, exhibitions, conversations, reflections and group activities. They were welcomed by Fr. George Palamattam SDB, the founder of Siloam.
Youth Involve had its origin in the question, “Should young dreams be allowed to die?”, that emerged from a conversation that Fr. Jerry Thomas, the Director of Bosco Institute, had with a young alumna of Bosco Institute, who was trying to come to terms with a traumatic experience in her life. This question resulted in the initiation of Youth Involve, to support and accompany young people to realize their dreams, especially dreams born of trauma, deeply disturbing or exciting connection with social realities, and passionate yearning from deep within the self. Bosco Institute has supported and mentored 39 such young people and their dreams in the last ten years. They have a very diverse array of focus – youth development, youth spaces, youth café, mental health, dropouts, women empowerment, natural farming and healthy living, food processing, reclaiming the disappearing cultural heritages of the indigenous communities like the weaves and designs, art, craft, jewelry and traditional institutions, education, peace building, cancer care, care of the elderly, etc. The group expressed their immense gratitude to DKA Austria for being with them in this journey of 10 years, by creating a collage of traditional weaves stitched into the map of the north east.
Significantly the 10th anniversary of YI coincides with the 200 years of the dream of Don Bosco. Hence the theme of the celebrations was “Live Your Dream”. One of the highlights of the celebrations was the pilgrimage to the Shrine of Don Bosco, Sohra, to connect with the dream of Don Bosco. Fr. Saji Lukose, the Rector of Don Bosco Technical School Shillong, animated the YI group consisting of youth from diverse faiths, on the dream of Don Bosco and what it meant for him to live that dream. Some of the youth shared how Don Bosco very visibly and mysteriously acted in the course of their life. For some he was the ever present, invisible and unknown guide. The reflection continued on the journey back and the next day.
As a visible sign of youth empowerment, a new lead team of YI seniors volunteered to steer the YI space in the coming years – a safe space characterized by trust, acceptance, forgiveness and healing, integrity, empathy and above all, love – a space where the young people can unashamedly and confidently be themselves. Such spaces, the youth say, are so rare to find and need to be nurtured. The three-day celebrations came to an end at the ‘Pool of Siloam’, where Fr. Jerry Thomas, the initiator of YI, guided the group to let go off into the pool what hurts and cripples them and take what would energize and nourish them in their continued journey. He reflected with the youth how the cracks in our own brokenness can be transformed into windows that help us to look into and through similar ‘windows’ that others have, and feel connected and supported. The celebrations came to an end with a feeling of renewed energy to “Live Your Dream”.
