In October 2019, I was asked to visit the works of Fe y Alegría (FyA) in Guatemala to prepare me for the international meeting in El Salvador. During that visit, I had the privilege of seeing several Fe y Alegría schools in the remote areas of Guatemala. It’s been almost two years now, but several scenes from that trip are still engraved in my mind.
One of them was at a school located on a mountain. When I was introduced, I asked one of the FyA staff to translate my question to the students, “Can you tell me what values you have learned in this school?” After some silence, one student answered, “Love.” Then others continued, “Solidarity”, “honesty”, “compassion”, and so on. I felt very moved listening to their answers because they seemed so sincere and confident. What touched me, most of all, was this answer: “We learned these from our teachers!” I felt the warm atmosphere of the class, served, guided, and accompanied by teachers who teach by being witnesses of these values.
Another memorable scene was when I met with a group of mothers who volunteer to cook snacks or lunch for the students. A list of mother volunteers and their volunteer days was posted on the wall of the school. The ingredients were provided by the school while the preparation of the snacks and meals was organised and carried out by the students’ parents. Joy shone from their faces. This experience invited me to reflect on the ways of the parish kindergarten where I used to work. In the FyA movement, the school plays the role of a bridge between the school and the community. The local community is deeply involved with the school. FyA schools become educational centres for the community by integrating local people to form an educational community. I felt inspired by this spirit of community participation in the schools I visited.
I also remember the meeting organised by the FyA Guatemala team with the FyA school teachers so I could meet them. They shared how they became FyA teachers and how they were transformed. Many of them said that they work from the heart and that love motivates them to teach. It is their “vocation”, they said. When I asked them what helped them to feel that way, all of them answered, “The formation programme from Fe y Alegría movement!”
Fe y Alegría is Spanish for faith and joy. I witnessed what it means to demonstrate faith and joy from these experiences.
Fe y Alegría is an educational movement initiated in Latin America whose mission is the transformation of society through quality education for the poor. It promotes the tradition of Jesuit education. Jesuits and collaborators in Cambodia have been working in education through the Apostolic Prefecture of Battambang, Jesuit Service Cambodia, and Xavier Jesuit School. Since all these three sectors are involved with providing access to quality education for the poor, we are trying to collaborate with each other more actively and constructively. Our aim is to enable people to become the main agents in the transformation process through their engagement in the FyA movement.
We are in the stage of exploring how to implement this collaboration, and to create synergy among us who are involved in both formal and informal ways of education in Cambodia. Last year, despite limitations, we organised some workshops for public school teachers and offered faith-based youth leadership development workshops. This year, we are trying to pilot a library project with Xavier Jesuit School and other public schools associated with the Karuna Battambang Organization of the Apostolic Prefecture of Battambang, and Jesuit Service Cambodia. At this moment, the Covid-19 pandemic challenges us to be more compassionate, creative, and collaborative. I hope and pray that we can create our own scenes of genuine witnessing of Faith and Joy (Fe y Alegría) in the Cambodian context, while we strive to build communities of solidarity through transformative education.
Fr Jinhyuk Park is a Korean Jesuit assigned to the Jesuit Mission in Cambodia, where he is currently working as Fe y Alegría project coordinator, and director of Xavier Jesuit School.