Together for a New Africa – The Second Edition of Tutors’ training (T4NA II) closed its doors on October 1, 2022 at Mariapolis Piero, a little town of the Focolare Movement in Nairobi, Kenya.
Texte: Liliane Mugombozi
Photo:T4NA
A tutors’ training of five days (September 27-october 1) saw a participation of 42 professionals in presence but others followed online, with extensive experience in various fields: education, communication and information technology, economics, business and management, environment and health, architecture, public works, politics and diplomacy etc., from 14 countries South of Sahara, the presence of Samer Kurzum from the Holy Land added an extraordinary dimension to the international picture of the event.
“A passionate week of a lot of work, full of reflections, moments of deliberations, clarifications, but also awareness of the magnitude of challenges facing the African continent nonetheless a growing awareness of the resources at our disposal in order not to let ourselves be overwhelmed by the problems, but focus on possible solutions”, said Martine from RDC.
The proposed contents of the training, having at its core the culture of unity in Chiara Lubich’s thought and life experience, inspired by the experience of the Pilot Phase and new socio-economic and cultural developments of today’s context, saw the participants engaged into various activities and reflections such as: Co-Leadership and Co-Governance in the contemporary Africa, socio-economic and political context; traditional and modern values regarding leadership, the values and African philosophy of Ubuntu, Interdisciplinary Foundation (anthropological, cultural, religious); challenges and opportunities, training session on digital citizenship and media literacy and more.
The tutors’ development was presented as a continuous effort to strengthen the project’s performance through approaches like coaching, training sessions, and leadership mentoring.
Tércio from Mozambique reflected on the contents: “Not only do these programs offered to us opportunities to improve the skills, they were the foundation of our collaboration, our living together, and I hope they will enhance the productivity of our project”.
In some circumstances these days of training revealed also to be a preparation for additional responsibilities to learn and introduce leadership skills and software knowledge needed in future, in a special way for some tutors who started the program as students, and are currently taking on new roles.
There are many other expressions that could describe this “learning” week: sharing of stories, of experiences of conquests and internalizing failures, a week of promises, of dialogue but also of meetings and networking.
Professor Laban Ayiro a Kenyan academic, currently serving as the Vice Chancellor of Daystar University, a Christian, liberal arts university based in Nairobi, the capital and largest city of Kenya paid a visit to the group. In his short but powerful address, he heighted the importance of selfless leader in the African context today: “a leader must learn the art of selflessness. Do you know how to reach there? By burning the selfishness in the fire of sacrifice…”
Message of encouragement from Margaret Karram, President of Focolare Movement and The Vice Grand Chancellor of the Sophia University Institute, at the conclusion, was defined by some as a send off message and by others as a challenging one. Among others she wrote: “…theme that you have chosen to focus on in this project – leadership in the context of a culture of unity – is of particular importance for the future of your continent. But it is of great interest to all of humanity, and we look forward to receiving the fruits of your experience, which will be significant to the entire world”
In his concluding remarks, Prof. Justus Mbae, chair of the board of Together for New Africa project, reminded the importance of deepening and understanding their cultural roots calling for commitment and networking in spite of the distances: “this is not the end of the training but rather the beginning. Commitment is very important for us to succeed. It is easy to let go when we find ourselves alone, that’s why networking is key”.