HOPE OF ALL COLORS
20 years of aspirations, dreams, joys, and efforts, to build a future where our grain of sand is making a better world possible.
We briefly recall the history of FASFI:
In 2003 the Foundation “Ayuda Solidaria Hijas de Jesús” (FASFI), a non-governmental organization for the development of impoverished countries and groups, was founded.
The first years are a time of deepening their identity (today we have very well-defined who we are, what moves us, what we want, what we do, and how we organize ourselves, in the “identity document”). Time was also devoted to the assimilation of the by-laws and the preparation of the Operating Manual.
In the beginning, a group of Daughters of Jesus began to participate and to be responsible for the commissions that arose; it was very special to accompany the volunteers who began… Then the laity began to get involved.
An important moment was when the Superior General, in 2008, had a meeting with the Daughters of Jesus and lay members of FASFI and asked them to be open to lay people taking on positions of responsibility in delegations and commissions. Horizons were opened along the lines that the congregation wished to work together with the laity.
A milestone in our history is the gesture of the group “ALL BROTHERS” of Elche, who, upon the founding of FASFI, knowing their identity and way of proceeding, decide in a prophetic gesture to die to give life: it is extinguished as an organization and become FASFI. Only from the inside can we appreciate the living sap that they injected and continue to give us all, from their humility and quiet work.
The delegations in Brazil and the Caribbean have also been a milestone, as well as having links in other regions where the congregation is present.
FASFI has continued its life as a small organization, with big dreams and many achievements:
There are three lay members of the Board of Trustees (the same number as the Daughters of Jesus); the delegates in Spain and the coordinators of the commissions are lay people.
As a result of everyone’s work, the Statutes, Identity documents, Operating Manuals, Cooperation, Volunteers, Members, Collaborators, and Companies, as well as the strategic plans have been definitively drawn up.
The history of volunteering over the years has been very rich: depending on the times and circumstances, the number of volunteers has varied: many in different Latin American countries, but also in Mozambique, the Philippines, and Bangladesh.
Great importance has been given to the training of all FASFI members, both at a general level and in the delegations, to the volunteers and to the meetings in assemblies, sending and receiving volunteers in order to unify criteria, open horizons, continue dreaming, be thankful for the road?
The presence in networks and other solidarity institutions has been taken care of. The Board of Trustees has also been reflecting on its role and accompanying the life of the Foundation, being present at various and numerous meetings.
Teresa García Román FI, President of FASFI
