By Fr. John Bosco Theparat Pitisant, SDB
Bangkok, Thailand, 15 July 2017 -- Last week, Fr. Jayapalan Raphael, the World Delegate for Past-Pupils of Don Bosco, met some members of the Federation of Past-Pupils in Thailand. Present at the meeting were: Fr. Dheparat Pitisant – Provincial, Fr. Phornchit Poonvithajakij – Provincial Delegate, Fr. Piya Puetchan - Member of the Commission, Dr. Vallop Cheeravanont- President of Thailand Federation of Past-Pupils, and some core leaders of the local units. The meeting was held at SDB Provincial House in Bangkok.
At present, Thailand has 6 Local Units of Don Bosco Past-Pupils Association that join together a Thailand Federation headed by Dr. Vallop Cheeravanont. Fr. Jayapalan took the occasion to acquaint himself with the members and introduced himself to those present. The meeting lasted for two and a half hours and ended with a fraternal supper.
Throughout the meeting the World SDB Delegate shared his positive view on the situation the Salesian World of Don Bosco Past-Pupils, led by the enthusiastic and dedicated World President, Mr. Michal Hort and his Councilors. He shared with us the vision, mission and objectives to be reached in the coming 6 year-period. The new Statues of the World Confederation of Past-Pupils were made clear to us point by point. He encouraged us to pay much attention on the young past-pupils (GEX – Giovani Exallievi) and family mission. There were lots of discussions and exchange of views among the members, especially about the registration of Alumni Association members. In Thailand, we used to consider everybody who was graduate of our school or institution, member of the Federation of Past-Pupils.
We thanked Fr. Jayapalan for this animation visit. We pray that his visit will be another step that will refresh our well exiting Federations of Past-Pupils and Confederation to move on with new initiatives and enthusiasm to apply the new Statues (ed. 2015) and put into practice the objectives of the World Confederation of Past-Pupils.
Resources: Statutes of the Don Bosco Alumni World Confederation (2015) and Animation materials EAO
