Manila Commitment

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Last Updated (Thursday, 04 February 2010 00:45)

Roundtable on YMCA as Global Citizens in Mission 21, June 25-29, 2008, Manila, Philippines

 

June 25-29, 2008

Manila, Philippines

MANILA COMMITMENT

 

Preamble

We, the 57 participants from 13 countries and territories gathered as people of faith. We gathered to celebrate life as the YMCA together with other partners and civil society organisations working in Asia and Pacific.

 

We gathered to affirm the Paris Basis, Challenge 21 and the Quadrennial Vision of the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs:

“Striving as one body in Christ to respond as Global Citizens in carrying out our social responsibility, fostering peace with justice and promoting sustainability of life”.

In affirmation of the three main thrusts adopted by the 17th General Assembly of the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs in Chiang Mai, Thailand, we gathered to articulate fresh contextual mission imperatives that lead to guidelines for action as Global Citizens and initiate communities of practice with a focus on social responsibility, fostering peace withjustice and promoting sustainability for life

 

OUR JOURNEY TOGETHER

We gathered to listen, discern and respond to the movement of the spirit in our times. Wedeliberated on important matters. We met in humility to listen, clarify and explore alternateways of learning and living.

The Roundtable emphasized participation and learning from the experiences of people. This provided an opportunity to examine and review the work of YMCAs in their respective countries and explore alternative ways of carrying out our tasks.

This was a journey of unlearning and relearning. We were made aware of the need to simultaneously make a critique and offer alternatives. We were encouraged to see poverty not simply as a lack of resources but as a denial of rights. This being the situation, the industrially developed and the not so developed countries should be in partnership, a partnership leading to attitudinal change and empowerment of all the stakeholders.

We were reminded that we lived in a world that is interconnected and threatened. Our own lifestyle choices had an impact on another section of society.

 

Guidelines to our Commitment

  1. All stakeholders in each YMCA to take ownership of this Manila Commitment.
  2. Stakeholders in each country to have a common analysis of their context and mission.
  3. Special programme focus to be given to the empowerment of youth.
  4. Capacity building of YMCA staff and volunteers to work for the achievement of the Quadrennial Thrusts, namely, social responsibility, peace with justice and sustainability of life.
  5. Our call to be in mission includes working with people of other faiths and ideologies, with a common goal of justice and peace.
  6. Renewal and commitment to the spirit and practice of partnership with like- minded organizations that share a common goal of initiating ecological and sustainable practices and communities.
  7. As global citizens, YMCA will act on global concerns, speaking out against injustices and engage in making another world possible through local actions with global impact.
  8. Our responses therefore must be multi-pronged. It must lead to a transformation within the YMCA and the larger society.

To carry out these, YMCA affirms that we will act as global citizens in response to our Godgiven

contextual mission.