Don Bosco Alumni Launch Website during the National Council Meeting in Bangalore. New Delhi, Nov. 2. The Don Bosco Alumni National Federation Council held their annual meeting at the Salesian Provincial House, Bangalore between October 28 to 30th, 2013. A National Website of Don Bosco Alumni in India was launched during the meeting.
The event stood out for the exceptional attendance of eight SDB delegates and twenty two DB Alumni office bearers from ten provincial federations. It was also a privilege to have Fr. Michael Peedikayil SDB - the delegate for the Salesian Family on the SPCSA grace the event on the first two days of the council meeting.
The programme was inaugurated with the lighting of the lamp by Fr. Thomas Anchukandam - Provincial, Bangalore province who was joined by Fr. Michael Peedikayil SDB, the Provincial of New Delhi, Fr. Noel Maddhichetty SDB - National Delegate for the DB Alumni, Mr. Rajiv Tikmany - President, Indian National Federation of the DB Alumni and Mr. Rajesh Gupta - World Councillor (South East Asia) and and Fr. Martin Kuruvanmakal - Delegate from the host province, amongst others. A key features of the inaugural session were the inspiring talk and the launching of the Don Bosco Alumni website by Rev. Fr. Thomas Anchukadam SDB.
The first session of the day was animated by Fr. Noel Maddhichetty SDB on the theme of collaboration of Don Bosco Alumni in the Mission of Don Bosco in the region of South Asia. He presented the current of interventions of the Regional commissions of SPCSA and highlighted possible avenues of collaboration of DB Alumni. Fr. Michael Peedikayil shared information about the proposed plans of the Bicentenary celebrations of Don Bosco to be held in 2015 in India. The rest of the time was dedicated to discussions in areas primarily related to administrative/functional issues.
On the second day a talk on ''the role of the Alumni in spreading the mission of Don Bosco'' was delivered by Mr. Glen Brass, past President of the Bangalore Unit and currently a member of the commission for the DB Alumni, Bangalore province. The talk stressed primarily on two aspects, viz. understanding the mission of Don Bosco and based on our personal experience in salesian institutions, employing the preventive system while working and involving ourselves with the young in our own environment and not just within the walls of the salesian institutions; extending this further, exploring the possibilities of implementing a concrete programme for caring, counselling and assisting immigrant youth in all parts of our country.
Fr. Noel Maddhichetty SDB, summarized the outcome of the discussions and thanked the Provincial Federation of Bangalore Province and the Provincial community and the organizers of the event for the excellent arrangements.