2 March 2011

DISTRICT CHAPTER VIETNAM: Over last weekend twenty one Delegates assembled at Mai Thon for the first session of the 12th District Chapter. The Chapter received a comprehensive, well documented and illustrated report of the work of the Brother Visitor and District Council these past four years. The Chapter received also the first District wide sondage nomination ballot for Bro Visitor and engaged in a number of ballots to determine three names of Brothers suitable to be appointed Visitor and submitted the final secret ballot to Bro Superior. On 16th March Bro Gregoire Tan completes his mandate as Visitor. During his term and under his creative and energetic leadership the District has expanded into Cambodia, opened new projects for the poor, opened a primary school and continued to form a number of candidates as Brothers. The Institute and all religious congregations in Vietnam received recently legal approval from the Government and the right to own property.

Thanks to Bro Gregoire for his ministry of animation and service these past eight years. May God continue to bless him in the years ahead.

PERPETUAL PROFESSIONS DELEGATION OF INDIA: On Saturday Brothers Antonyswamy, Kennedy, Alex, Joseph Raj and Sekar will make their Perpetual Vows in a ceremony at Boystown, Madurai. The Brothers have completed a six months’ preparation programme. May God bless each of them and the Delegation on this special occasion

SECRETARY OF EDUCATION BRO ARMIN LUISTRO: I am asked often about the work of Bro Armin in the Government of the Philippines. He emailed recently some information to me as follows:

“I have been in government service for seven-and-a-half months now and had to adjust from working in a private institution to the bureaucracy of government.  On my first month in office, I had to present to Congress our budget for 2011 which was actually prepared by the past administration.  That was my baptism of fire.  On my fifth month, I had to undergo the hearings for with the Commission on Appointments.  With prayers, patience and the support of fellow educators, I was lucky enough to have learned the ropes of how to engage our politicians and other stakeholders. 
I am blessed with an excellent team of four Undersecretaries and four Assistant Secretaries all of whom I can trust.  Our decisions are collegial and we try to address the decades of neglect of the Philippine educational system.  The country has not invested much in education the past years so we are trying to address the shortages in teachers, classrooms, school furniture, sanitation facilities and textbooks.
The task seems daunting and our first advocacy is to reform the current ten years of basic education before university with the proposal to make that twelve years in conformity with world standards.  We are also trying to address the concerns on corruption in the department since the public perception is that the Department of Education is one of the most corrupt units.
I still reside at DLSU and am able to join the community for prayers, meetings and some activities although when I'm on the road visiting schools I have to be out for a couple of days from community activities.  So far I have made unannounced visits at close to 80 schools but I have a long way to go as we have around 44,000 schools and 24M students.
Our school year ends in March but we are currently validating our data and will start preparations for the opening of the next school year which begins in June 2011.  We expect that shortages on basic inputs will be bigger than projected as we have already pushed for universal kindergarten for five-year olds beginning in June.”Let’s keep Bro Armin and his work in our prayers. I will catch up with him during the Holy Week retreat in the Philippines.

LASALLIAN WOMENS SYMPOSIUM: The planning group consists of Trish Carroll (Chair), Director of Lasallian Education Services ANZPPNG; Dr Ating Jochico, Acting Vice Chancellor for Academics DLSU Bacolod, Philippines; Ms Norah Fareh, Director of Cambridge Students La Salle High School Faisalabad, Pakistan and Mrs Julia Willie, Principal, La Salle College Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. The group will meet 30 April and 1 May in Kuala Lumpur. I will be in attendance.

SCHEDULES: David; 3-5 March, Sydney; 6-12 March, Singapore; 13-15 March, Manila, National Mission Council; 16 March; visit Lasallian school Jakarta; 18-19 March, Bangkok, Delegation Council and Recollection/Ritual Closing of Delegation; 20 March – 2 April, Rome, Intercapitular Meeting

Mark: 2 -11 March, Myanmar; 12 – 13 March, Singapore; 14 – 24 March, Thailand; 25 – 31 March, Myanmar.

Grace and peace.

David Hawke FSC