Marco Carvalho
The Diocesan Youth Commission unveiled last Saturday a new volunteer program, aimed at young people – and young adults – aged 16 to 35 years old. Called “Teen Sunny Project,” the initiative aims to attract fifty volunteers and prepare them to collaborate in the initiatives promoted by the organization.
The Diocesan Youth Commission, which replaced the Diocesan Pastoral Youth Center in November, launched a recruitment campaign with the aim of identifying young people willing to take part in some of the initiatives promoted by the Diocese of Macau. Directed at Catholic schools and parochial schools, the campaign is the first step towards the establishment of a one-year volunteer program, Tammy Chio told O Clarim: “The Teen Sunny Project is, mainly, a volunteer program. A one-year long volunteer program. And to recruit these volunteers, we advertised the campaign in the newspapers and on Facebook and we sent this recruitment information to the local Catholic secondary schools. Young people aged 16 to 35 years old are welcome to join this program,” the deputy-director of the Diocesan Youth Commission explains.
The recruitment campaign ends on the 12th of March. Afterwards, the Commission will provide the volunteers with basic training and prepare them to act in several areas, although the scope of the initiatives in which they will collaborate has not yet been defined. The now defunct Diocesan Pastoral Youth Center used to promote a summer activities program every year with the active support of young volunteers. The Teen Sunny Project is much more comprehensive, Ms Chio claims: “As I said, this is a long-term program. It extends between March this year and February next year. It lasts for twelve months and during that time, we will offer basic training to our volunteers, so that they can get to know and learn more about the needs that pervade our society. Having done that, we are planning to promote monthly meetings with our volunteers and define the kind of target groups we will be able to address in terms of volunteering. Nevertheless, children are not our only target,” the deputy director of the Diocesan Youth Commission assured. Although the new dynamics of the Youth Commission is much more comprehensive, the organization of the Summer activities program continues to deserve special attention. This year, the summer activities program should take place in late July and early August: “As in other years, the summer activities should take place in August. We have to keep in mind that different schools have different calendars and we may have to adjust the date, but they are likely to take place between July 23rd and mid-August,” Tammy Chio told O Clarim.
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