THE CITADEL, PROVINCIAL HOUSE, CHENNAI The Provincial House
comprises the Provincial Office and various animating departments of the Province. They are: Don Bosco Catechetical Centre (DEEPAGAM), Don Bosco Institute of Communication Arts (DBICA), Don Bosco Publication Centre (Arumbu Publications, Salesian Bulletin in Tamil and English, INTERCOM, the Province newsletter), Bosco Information Service (BIS), Salesian Urban Rural Advancement Backing Institute (SURABI), Programme Project, Career Guidance and Job Placement Cell (VAZHIKAATTI), and the CFCA Project Office. The Province Procure, Archives and Documentation Centre are also situated here.
Don Bosco Catechetical Centre (DEEPAGAM), with its focus on training faith-formators, renders its service in the field of Catechesis, reaching out to youth, teachers, parishioners and families. The Centre has various activities, such as animation programmes, publications and production, an audio-visual lending library, multi-media programmes, etc. The animation of faith-formators and Catechism teachers has been the main focus of the Centre, and programmes for this purpose are conducted at various levels.
Don Bosco Institute of Communication Arts (DBICA) has 3 main objectives: formation & training, seminars & research and production. Through media education the Centre aims to educate people, especially the youth, to become aware of mass media and their effect on society, culture and religion, and to become critical consumers of all media products and their messages. This is done through seminars and workshops organized both at the Centre as well as in several educational institutions in the Province. Through the DBICA productions, an effort is made to highlight the plight of poor people and to bring about awareness in society. Informative social videos for youth and youth-educators are also produced. Programmes to enhance the parent-child, teacher-student relationship are widely used for animation purposes. Training in media related skills is aimed at training youth, social workers and NGOs to effectively use mass media, as well as to train them on the technical aspects of media production. It has a well-equipped audio, video and book library.
The Don Bosco Publications Society is a registered Society under the Societies Registration Act of 1860. Three monthly magazines namely, Arumbu, Salesia Seithi Malar and Don Bosco (English) are published. Besides these magazines, Salesian and devotional books and books specifically addressed to youth are published in English and Tamil.
Arumbu is the only Tamil magazine published for the youth in Tamil Nadu. It has almost 17,000 regular subscribers, and an estimated readership of 2 lakhs, and is widely distributed in schools and numerous other educational institutions. The main purpose is to help youth and students become aware of the significance and importance of value based knowledge through the print media. Arumbu Publications has published several books on various themes, such as personality development, career guidance, social analysis, time management, parent-child relationship, etc. Apart from publishing books, Arumbu has also organized seminars, workshops, exhibitions and competitions. It has set up 5 book shops in Madurai, Trichy, Salem, Sivagangai and Tirupattur, to promote and market its publications.
Salesia Seithi Malar, is a professionally edited and officially registered magazine in Tamil, with a circulation of about 10,000 copies, and aims at educating Christians, especially of the Salesian Family, to the faith through a continual catechesis, while sharing news about the worldwide Salesian Family.
Don Bosco Salesian Bulletin, is the only English edition of the magazine in India with a circulation of 10,000 copies, distributed freely to the vast majority of its readers in almost all the States in the country, and also to Sri Lanka and Singapore. This year it is celebrating its 50th year of service to the Salesian Family in India.
Bosco Information Services (BIS) is a new initiative that has of late gained momentum. It aims to keep Province information and news at the forefront for INM confreres in particular, and the entire Salesian world in general, through the use of the Internet Province website – www.donboscochennai.org, the regular photo text feature INMFocus and Short Message Service (SMS). The BIS team also looks after the bi-monthly publication of the Province Newsletter, INTERCOM, which carries news and views on the various works carried out in the Province, and the new approaches to the apostolate emerging within the Province.
Salesian Urban Rural Advancement Backing Institute (SURABI) was started to evolve and implement a strategic plan of action for urban, rural and economic and social development. It acts as a mediator between the funding agencies and the local communities. This Institute analyses the needs of the place, prepares proposals, designs projects and contacts foreign and local agencies to sponsor the projects. It also executes these projects with the help of the Economer, monitors the process, sends the progress report to the sponsors and evaluates the outcome of the projects. Besides helping in finding the sources for the various projects, the Institute also trains confreres in skills such as scientific and participatory planning, project writing, evaluation process, etc. In the recent past, numerous projects have been sent for approval that will benefit Deepagam, Sagayathottam, Maranodai and also the Evening Study Concept. Projects for Arumbu, Veeralur boarding, DBICA Media Club, agricultural & industrial training and alternate energy programmes are underway.
The Programme Project is a new initiative begun in 2005 under the sponsorship of DMOS-Comide, to foster the educational, economic and social empowerment of the marginalized in the vicinity of some selected Salesian presences. This is done by organizing the people into Self-Help Groups, inculcating in them the habit of saving, training them to start small-scale industries, giving entrepreneurship training for self employment, by participating in the planning of the local administration and by making the village self-government effective. This is a time-bound project for 5 years from 2005 to 2010. There is a very systematic process and plan of execution of the project which is adhered to in the starting of new groups, their formation and development. Groups are divided into 4 clusters and all clusters are part of the Programme Project Federation.
Don Bosco Centre for Career Guidance and Job Placement (Vazhikaatti) offers career guidance for the young, to help them choose a career in life according to their interests, aptitudes, personality, intelligence and economic background. The Job Placement Cell creates databases of the persons who are in need of employment with the necessary qualification, and tries to get them employed in companies, firms, institutions, factories and industries through the contacts that it has with them. This Cell acts as a liaison between the employers and the employees. Anticipating from time to time the demand for particular services or opportunities for employment in the job market, the Cell organizes short-term training accordingly. It has many branches scattered all over Tamil Nadu and this networking of personnel has proved to be helpful to thousands of youngsters in search of jobs.
Christian Foundation for Children and the Aged (CFCA), sponsors poor children and helps them financially in their studies. Each sponsored child receives $20 per month. While 90% of the money is deposited in the child’s account for payment of fees, school uniforms, books, etc., the rest is used for common activities like payment of salary for 198 part-time teachers, helping in 104 supervised night study centres, and for various other expenses for the children, both sponsored and non-sponsored. There are 1,294 sponsored children and 82 aged people sponsored by the CFCA, in addition to 6,250 and more non-sponsored children, who benefit through the CFCA-sponsored night study centres.
The Propaganda Office is run by a confrere, who corresponds regularly with benefactors abroad, particularly in Italy, but also in Ireland and elsewhere. A special appeal is made in the Christmas and Easter seasons. The response of the benefactors has been very generous and encouraging. A good part of this money, which is kept in the Generalate, is utilized for the payment of the expenses of the students abroad.
The Provincial Secretariat and Archives contains personal documents and correspondence of confreres dating back to the origin of the Province. The files are classified and kept in order. But, much work has still to be done with regard to scientifically updating the mode of classifying and of digitally storing this valuable data. The Province Secretary is directly responsible for this sector. However, since he is not a resident member of the community, the Provincial Secretary looks after it, with the help of a layperson. It is recommended that the Provincial and his council take suitable steps to safeguard this valued heritage of our Salesian history in India, even if this requires some initial expenses.
The Documentation Centre, like the Archives, contains a lot of important Salesian books, documents, manuscripts, as well as other spiritual books. In the last year, efforts have been made to sort these books. Since the community does not have a specific library, this centre can be stocked with good reading material for the confreres. A full-time, qualified layperson can be appointed to look after this work.
inmprovincial@gmail.com ;inmviceprovincial@gmail.com
The Citadel
18 Landons Road,
CHENNAI - 600 010.
Cell – 94440 27043
