Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bogota (Agenzia Fides) - “To generate a high-profile debate in order to confront, from a binational perspective, the political and humanitarian situations and the institutional and social responses to these factors...” This is the objective behind the Seminar entitled: “Colombia-Ecuador: Immigration, Border, and Social Policies,” which will take place September 3 and 4 at the National University of Colombia in Bogota.
As the Department for Social Communications of the Colombian Bishops' Conference says, the Seminar will be attended by over 20 speakers from the two countries. Special emphasis will be placed on the “analysis of the Colombia-Ecuador border,” without failing to address “the area of international relations and national politics in matters of security and immigration.” The initiative was prepared by the National Secretary of Social and Pastoral Ministry (SNPS) through the Human Mobility Section which, together with other organisms, forms a part of the Group for Border Concerns (GTF).
The SNPS of the Colombian Bishops' Conference has also organized a National Congress entiteld “Social Integration from a Psychological-Social Perspective” on September 11-12, during the Week for Peace. The meeting will be attended by Bishops from various dioceses, Directors of Pastoral and Social Ministry, priests, professionals, pastoral workers, and people working in the area of forced migration and victims of armed conflict in Colombia. The objective of the Congress, the organizers say, is that of “providing an opportunity for encounter, analysis, and reflection as a strategy for promoting proposals and policies of intervention on a psychological-social level,” also allowing for the “establishment of new social structures that could help serve victims of social-political violence in Colombia.” The Bishops' Conference's initiative forms a part of the Program for Social Integration with psychological-social perspective (ISEP), which is led by the Ministry for Social Protection and another 30 territorial organizations in the country. (GT) (Agenzia Fides 2/9/2009)
