From 22nd March to 26th March 2021, Don Bosco Tech Africa (DBTA) hosted the 6th Annual Stakeholder Assembly at Savelberg Retreat Centre in Nairobi (Kenya). Br. John Njuguna, DBTA Deputy Director, moderated a meeting that managed to reunite 55 participants in total. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some attendants participated virtually. That was also the case for SAAM.

The main objective of the 6th Annual Stakeholder Assembly was to present the annual plans of the DBTA office and explain the TVET activities of the Salesian Provinces in the Africa-Madagascar Region. The event started with an introductory speech of Fr. George Tharaniyil, the DBTA Executive Director. He thanked all the partners that were present, in person or virtually, and continued exposing the agenda of the week-long Assembly. He alluded to the possibilities of the event and what they meant. In his own words:

Let us make use of this opportunity to build the network, its capacities and ultimately to direct all our efforts to the young people in the training Centres

In that context, we were invited to present the SAAM project in detail as a partner organisation. This was an incredible opportunity to explain all the progress SAAM has achieved despite the difficulties of the current situation.

On Thursday, 25th March 2021, Alfredo Garmendia, SAAM promoter, and Beatrice Bellet, SAAM coordinator, presented the project in front of the dozens of participants following the event. The conference focused on the main objectives of the project and the phases of it. The SAAM representatives mentioned the European and African partners, the VET fields involved and summarised the meetings already held: from the meeting in Brussels to the last intermediary meeting.

We took advantage of the hybrid event (both in person and virtual) to play a short teaser of SAAM and to explain our online methodology: The Voyage. An innovative tool that enables peer work and online travelling. Alfredo and Beatrice took some time to describe the first experts mobilities that have been carried out. The first one in Nairobi (Kenya), where the event was taking place, and the second one in Ebolowa and Baré (Cameroon). When explaining the mobilities, we presented our communication tools and how anyone can follow our journey through our social media channels, our website or our newsletter.

Ver esta publicación en Instagram

Una publicación compartida de SAAM Mobility (@saammobility)

Besides the different partners’ presentations, the event included team building activities and other practices such as a tree planting exercise in commemoration of the recent Africa Environment Day.

As a closure, Fr. George Tharaniyil acknowledged again everyone involved in the Assembly and thanked all the stakeholders’ support to DBTA actions: “As we go back to our Provinces, let’s go with renewed enthusiasm. Let’s keep up the momentum. Let’s keep up the communication with DBTA and most importantly, within your Provinces”.

After the event, DBTA published a video with a summary of its key activities. You can watch it here and below you can find the SAAM presentation with all the information provided during the conference.