Like a serene rain, this is how the news of new schools joining the Global Education Pact is reaching us.
The first two, Daughters of Jesus of A Coruña and Mater Purissima of Madrid, were followed by five others. And we will continue to inform about new memberships because this makes us feel united in the mission of education, which we share, and because it can encourage those who are thinking about taking the step.
On January 23, we received the communication of the adhesion of the Colegio Hijas de Jesús of Pamplona. On their website we find the seal of the Pact and they express in it the wish that:
“students to be people for others, to beinvolved in the transformation of the world to make it more humane, fairer and more caring”.
Shortly thereafter, we learned, through a single mailing, that three schools in Brazil were also committed: the Colegio Inmaculada de Campinas, Inmaculada de Mogi Mirim and Sagrado Corazón de Jesús de Bragança Paulista. The commitment took place in Campinas, at a meeting of educators from the three schools on the occasion of the beginning of the school year. They are encouraged to take this step by the fact that both the Pact and the “Fraternity and Hunger” campaign open new horizons of reflection for them. They wish, as Francisco says:
“To join efforts in a broad educational alliance to form mature people, capable of overcoming fragmentation and opposition and rebuilding the fabric of relationships for a more fraternal humanity.”
We are getting to know it and incorporating it, they say, because it is a long road ahead of us, it is a change of life.
The Portuguese email was followed by the last email we received, this time in English. The communication comes from the Philippines, from Sacred Heart School in Cebu. They have held a meeting of all the educators of the School, they have recalled the objectives of the Pact and each teacher has stamped his signature next to the logo of the Center and the Pact. They have prepared a ceremony full of symbolism and commitment:
“We recognize and embrace our role in helping to build a more humane and just society.”
How true it is that educating is an act of hope!
María Teresa Pinto FI.
