My retirement last July was an opportunity to celebrate with friends and travel companions. It was also an ideal moment to look back on all the decades during which I have been – and remain – linked to the YCW. My commitment has led me professionally into many other contexts such as neighborhood work, work with migrants and refugees and, in recent years, the training work of the Catholic Worker movement (KAB) in my region. It is the YCW's “SEE-JUDGE-ACT” method that has always spurred me into action. Looking back, I am simply grateful to this youth movement for connecting me with countless people. There is a word for connection: “UBUNTU.” It is a South African philosophy which means: “I am because we are.”
Today, the International Cardijn Association (ICA) is my area of commitment, which will also accompany me as a young retiree. Mobilizing former members to support the YCW today is, and remains, a stimulating task in all movements, from the local to the international level.
The distribution of the UBUNTU solidarity coin and accompanying brochure is a financial action for the “event of the century.”
Proceeds from the sale of this coin, particularly among older generations of YCWers, should help young YCW leaders from other continents to make the trip and take part in the centenary celebrations in Brussels.
We, the former members, for whom financial actions have always been part of the YCW action, can help finance this great event through our UBUNTU networks.
It is an intergenerational challenge!
I would like this financial action to be contagious.
The motto for our next birthday party or celebration (Christmas is coming!) could be: “No gifts, but a donation to the IYCW”.
Kind regards from UBUNTU
Bernhard Bormann
PS: By the way, a few hundred euros have already been paid into the donations account!
