ICA Meeting: A Dynamic Commitment Towards the YCW Centenary

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The weekend of February 16-18 took us to Belgium, to the Management Committee of the International Cardijn Association (ICA). This team is composed of people from different generations of IYCW leaders and the current International Secretariat. Basma, Leizyl, Cecilia, Arlindo, Michele, Mardi, Bernhard and Marinete attended the meeting.

The objectives of the meeting were, among others, to get an overview of the current situation of the movement in the different countries, to evaluate the general activity of the IYCW and to plan for the coming years, with particular emphasis on the celebration of the CENTENARY of the YCW.

The ICA team's meetings are mainly held online, which deprives us of a physical presence, close human relations and real proximity, all of which facilitate agreements and motivation for the collective work that the International YCW needs. On the 16th and 18th, we worked in the office of the International Secretariat. On Saturday 17th, we visited the commune of Baudour and gathered near the community garden, of which our friend Michele has been a linchpin for many years.

We focused on the work being done for the CENTENARY celebration, from May 1 to 12, 2025, which will concentrate various activities, with the presence of different generations of YCW members in Belgium and internationally. All this will be the subject of forthcoming IYCW and ICA publications.

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About the International Cardijn Association

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The International Cardijn Association (ICA) is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to serve the present and future generations of young workers throughout the world.

Officially created in September 1998 on the initiative of the International YCW, the ICA mission is to provide financial support to the projects implemented by young workers in order to improve their capacities to take responsibilities and to change their living and working conditions. In this direction those young people can find the place they deserve in society and the dignity inherent in all human beings.

Throughout his life, Cardijn, who founded the International YCW in 1957, never ceased to disseminate his message that “Each young worker is worth more than all the gold in the world.” Convinced that this message is still true today, the ICA wants to help young people – apprentices or unemployed, domestic workers, workers in the informal economy, casual workers, those exploited in export-processing zones, those excluded from society – to carry out projects which will allow them to live with dignity.

 For its functioning, the ICA relies on a team of volunteers who are involved in raising funds. Those funds come from donations by people or movements wishing to support a just cause: that of young workers. The capital is invested ethically and the interests are used to fund projects which are initiated by movements or groups of young workers who struggle to change their living and working conditions. Decent jobs, reasonable working hours, adequate salaries, weekly day-offs, the eradication of sexual and moral harassment, social protection for all … are the focus of the struggle to be carried out in a globalized world, where human beings often feel powerless when faced with walls of injustice.
 
By providing financial support to young workers’ projects, the ICA simply wants to contribute to building a society with more justice and a world with more solidarity.

 

 

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