Values for the Yatra

Archdiocesan Value Education Centre (AVEC ) E-Letter December 2010

SAY NO TO CHAI PANI”

As Thursday, December 9 dawns, there is a dim reminder that
one is supposed to celebrate International Anti- Corruption Day.
“Dim reminder” to “celebrate” in quotation marks indeed, because
unfortunately anti-corruption continues to be largely in the back burner for most
world powers, for most international institution and for many of their leaders.
Corruption is now a global problem. The most obvious effect of political corrup-
tion is a loss of public esteem for politicians and political life. It’s a major hin-
drance to sustainable development, with a disproportionate impact on poor com-
munities and is corrosive on the very fabric of society. Corruption can refer to the
destruction of one’s honesty or loyalty through acting in a way that shows lack of
integrity and honesty. Corruption can take a wide number of forms obliging peo-
ple to pay bribes, to pass customs, to push for a particular outcome in a legisla-
ture etc…
The United Nations Convention, on October 31, 2003 signed a resolution num-
ber 58/4 declaring December 9 each year as the International Anti- Corruption
Day. This aims to raise public awareness of Corruption and what people can do
to fight it.
With multiple scams apparently weighing on their minds, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi recently spoke out
against the "cancer of corruption" and rising "graft and greed", saying these are
In this ISSUE
putting in danger the very basis of Independent India. Sonia Gandhi put in very
SAY NO to 1 well in these words, the country's economy may "increasingly be dynamic, but
Corruption our moral universe seems to be shrinking... Graft and greed are on the rise. The
principles on which Independent India was founded, for which a generation of
CHILD RIGHTS 2 great leaders fought and sacrificed their all, are in danger of being negated.”
Corruption cannot be fully eradicated, because it often is human nature to mostly
What can you do? 3
choose ones one well being above the general well being. It also is human na-
ture to look away, when one sees somebody's mistakes or corrupt acts, if that
Wear a Red Rib- 4
person is a friend, or the relative/friend of a good friend or somebody one re-
bon
spects or fears.
Silent Night 5
As a school community how can your school join hands to eradicate this “cancer
Beyaond Santa 6 of corruption”? Surely, you can start in some small way… we at AVEC propose a
simple, yet powerful strategy in five words “Say NO to Chai Pani”. As a part of
Christmas Wishes 7 Anti- corruption Day let us promote rejecting corruption by saying a “No to Chai
Pani”. Where there is corruption, there will never be real Peace.
 Values for the Yatra
Archdiocesan Value Education Centre (AVEC ) E-Letter December 2010

CHILD RIGHTS
WHAT ARE CHILD RIGHTS?

All people under the age of 18 are entitled to the standards and rights
guaranteed by the laws that govern our country and the international legal instruments we have ac-
cepted by ratifying them.

THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA:

The Constitution of India guarantees all children certain rights, which have been specially in-
cluded for them. These include:
# Right to free and compulsory elementary education for all children in the 6-14 year age group
(Article 21 A).
# Right to be protected from any hazardous employment till the age of 14 years (Article 24).
# Right to be protected from being abused and forced by economic necessity to enter occupations un-
suited to their age or strength (Article 39(e)).
# Right to equal opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of free-
dom and dignity and guaranteed protection of childhood and youth against exploitation and against
moral and material abandonment (Article 39 (f)).

Besides these they also have rights as equal citizens of India, just
as any other adult male or female:

# Right to equality (Article 14).

# Right against discrimination (Article 15).
# Right to personal liberty and due process of law (Article 21).
# Right to being protected from being trafficked and forced into bonded labour (Article 23).
# Right of weaker sections of the people to be protected from social injustice and all forms of exploita-
tion (Article 46).

Research, documentation and interventions by government and the civil society groups in the past
have clearly brought forth some of the following child protection issues and categories of children
that deserve special protection:

# Gender Discrimination. # Natural disasters.

# Caste discrimination. # War and conflict.
# Disability. # HIV/AIDS
# Female foeticide. # Examination Pressure and Student Suicides
# Infanticide. # Corporal Punishment in schools
# Domestic violence. # Child sacrifice...
# Child sexual abuse. # Child trafficking
# Child marriage.
# Child labour.

As a School community how can you enable your children to recognize their CHILD RIGHTS?
 Values for the Yatra
Archdiocesan Value Education Centre (AVEC ) E-Letter December 2010

Go Barefoot for Human Rights: Lose your shoes this

Human Rights Day, December 10th
Every Human Has Rights, launched by the Elders and now hosted by CIVICUS, ex-
ists to raise awareness and engage the general public on human rights, bringing to
life the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human Rights Day on the 10th De-
cember every year celebrates the anniversary of the founding of the Universal Decla-
ration of Human Rights. Although the day is well known within human rights cir-
cles and those interested in this issue, it is not well known (or known at all) amongst
the general public. Many human rights organizations will mark the day with their
own events and actions and media work, but there is not yet a unifying global event
with mass appeal, such as say for World Aids Day or International Women’s Day.
Starting with Human Rights Day this year we want to begin to build awareness and
engage people in taking action for human rights across the year. What we need is a
simple idea that will help the day stand out and that, even for a few moments, ask
people to think about other people whose rights have been violated.

Our belief: The world would be a better place if every person walked a mile in
another person’s shoes.
 Values for the Yatra
Archdiocesan Value Education Centre (AVEC ) E-Letter December 2010

What can I do? - Wear a Red

Ribbon to raise awareness
December 1, 2010
The red ribbon is an international symbol of AIDS awareness
that is worn by people all year round and particularly around World AIDS Day to
demonstrate care and concern about HIV and AIDS, and to remind others of the
need for their support and commitment.
The red ribbon started as a "grass roots" effort; as a result there is no one official
AIDS ribbon manufacturer, and many people make their own. It's easily done - just
use some ordinary red ribbon and a safety pin!
If you want to take your awareness raising a step further then try finding a local event
to take part in. Around the world there are hundreds of activities taking place to mark
World AIDS Day, including candlelight vigils, art shows, marches and religious ser-
vices. If you can't find anything in your area then why not organize an event your-
self?

Started on 1st December 1988, World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing
awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. The World AIDS Day theme
for 2010 is 'Universal Access and Human Rights'. World AIDS Day is important in
reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to
be done.

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.4 million people living with HIV,
including 2.1 million children. During 2008 some 2.7 mil-
lion people became newly infected with the virus and an
estimated 2 million people died from AIDS.1 Around half
of all people who become infected with HIV do so be-
fore they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are
35.. The vast majority of people with HIV and AIDS live
in lower- and middle-income countries. But HIV today is
a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.
 Values for the Yatra
Archdiocesan Value Education Centre (AVEC ) E-Letter December 2010

Story behind SILENT NIGHT

There have been many stories of the origins of the Christ-
mas carol “Silent Night, Holy Night.” One of the most popularly told
one is as follows:

In the winter of 1818 at St. Nicholas’ Church at Obendorf, a village

near Salzburg, Austria, Joseph Mohr, the assistant to the priest,
faced a dilemma. It was just days before Christmas, and the church
organ which was so important to providing music for the Christmas
services was broken. Since the organ repairman was not a local of the village it would actu-
ally be months before the repair could be made, and Christmas would be long past.

His solution to the problem of the broken organ resulted in one of the most popular Christ-
mas carols of all time. In 1816 Mohr had written a simple poem that the villagers could un-
derstand expressing the wonder of the birth of Jesus. He asked his friend Franz Gruber who
was the organist at St. Nicholas to write music to accompany his poem so that they could
sing it together using a guitar to accompany their singing.

They first performed their newly composed Christmas carol at the Christmas Eve midnight
service on December 24, 1818. It did not instantly receive the worldwide recognition it has
come to know, however. It was not until years later in 1825 when Carl Mauracher was re-
building the organ at St. Nicholas that a handwritten copy of the words and music was found
in the organ loft.

Mauracher was from an area in the mountains of Tyrol which had many traveling folk choirs
who performed throughout Europe. He carried the carol back home, and it became a popular
song with the choirs as they traveled and spread its popularity wherever they went.

In some versions of the story it is told that mice had eaten the bellows of the organ. Others
say that Gruber himself had broken the organ. It is believed that there was frequent flooding
of the area that caused rust and mildew to affect the condition of the church organ often
making it unplayable. It is actually not known however if the organ was truly broken at Christ-
mastime of 1818. Some say that Mohr simply wanted a new carol for the service and was
fond of the guitar as an instrument. Some stories tell that both the poem and the music were
hastily written that Christmas Eve. A manuscript for “Silent Night” in Mohr’s hand was discov-
ered in 1995 which is dated 1816. In the manuscript Mohr credits the melody used for the
carol to Franz Gruber.
Whatever the details of the circumstances, Joseph Mohr’s and Franz Gruber’s contribution
of Christmas music for their village’s Christmas Eve midnight mass gave us all the beautiful
“Silent Night, Holy Night.”
 Values for the Yatra
Archdiocesan Value Education Centre (AVEC ) E-Letter December 2010

Christmas: Going beyond Santa

Oscar Romero served as the Archbishop of El Salvador until one March day in
1980 when he was gunned down while saying Mass.

Oscar Romero had much to say about the real meaning of Christmas. He had the
prophet's gift of cutting through the fluff that had enveloped and muffled God's
Word...It was the truth he spoke and his courageous defense of his people that
provoked his audacious high-profile public execution. Romero offended the power-
ful by speaking against the atrocities committed by the U.S.-supported Salvadoran
government. His assassins, we later learned, were graduates of the U.S. military
training program at the School of the Americas, now in Fort Benning, Georgia.

The Gospel he preached was indeed “good news to the poor” but not such good
news to the rich and powerful who were oppressing the poor. Here, for example, is
what he said about celebrating Christmas:

No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-
sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on oth-
ers, those who have no need even of God—for them there will be no Christmas.
Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will
have that someone. That someone is God. Emmanuel. God-with-us. Without pov-
erty of spirit there can be no abundance of God.

With these words it is as if Oscar Romero had pulled Santa's beard off and showed
us that he is really an imposter. If what Romero says is true, then all the stuff that
our culture identifies with Christmas--the trees, the lights, the shopping, and Santa
himself--may be just a diversion for us. The Christmas trappings are not bad in
themselves. But they may distract us from the uncomfortable truth that Christmas
isn't a celebration that the rich and comfortable can fully celebrate.

Christmas for the poor and humiliated of our world is the beginning
of a revolution that lifts them up. Romero only echoed what Jesus’
mother had already said about why God sent the child she bore:
“[God] has brought down the rulers from their thrones, and has ex-
alted those who were humble. [God] has filled the hungry with good
things; but sent away the rich empty handed.” (Luke 1:52-3)

If what Romero and Mary say is true, then the hungry kids in Africa
have more to celebrate than we do. Santa won't be sliding down their chimneys,
but he has no real substance anyway. The poor can rejoice because God so identi-
fies with them, that in Christ God entered the world as one of them. We who are
rich and powerful in the world can acknowledge Christmas intellectually, but it isn't
good news for us in the same way.
 Values for the Yatra
Archdiocesan Value Education Centre (AVEC ) E-Letter December 2010

Our celebration of Christmas can grow richer

and more genuine as we identify and accept in
ourselves our points of poverty and humiliation.
The place of our greatest weakness is the
humble stable where Christ can appear in our
lives. Christmas shows us that our pain and
humiliation are not things to reject but are win-
dows (or chimney's, if you will) through which
God's love and grace can enter.

Christmas is also good news for us who are

rich and powerful because we find in Christ's
incarnation the courage to give up our riches
and power so that we can identify more easily
with the neediness and powerlessness of oth-
ers in our world. By doing what Oscar Romero
did, humbling ourselves and siding with the
poor, we can be counted among them and join
in a genuine celebration of Christmas.

Merry Christmas and a

Happy New Year 2011

 Values for the Yatra
Archdiocesan Value
Archdiocesan Value Education
Education Centre
Centre(AVEC
(AVEC))E-Letter
E-Letter December
December2010
2010

Our Lady of Fatima,, Vidhyavihar

Convent of Jesus & Mary, FORT Our Lady Sacred Heart, Vashi

AVEC
orientation
Programs for
teachers,
Students.
Retreats for
Students,
Training
Programs
St. Anthony’s, Chembur ; RETREAT Our Lady Holy Cross, Lower Parel

Convent of Jesus & Mary, Vashi

Teachers’ Orientation: Holy Rosary, Dockyard

St. Jude, Jari Meri Our Lady Francis D’Assisi, Borivili Convent of Jesus & Mary FORT
 Values for the Yatra
Archdiocesan Value
Archdiocesan Value Education
Education Centre
Centre(AVEC
(AVEC))E-Letter
E-Letter December
December2010
2010

Congratulations: Care for Creation Competitions

POEM COMPETITION: RURAL WOMAN—SOUL OF THE VILLAGE 

   School Name  Student's Name  Class  Remarks 

   Juniors  Category       

1 St. Dominic Savio H.School, Andheri  Rhys Pereira  VI‐A  1st Prize 

2 Auxilium Convent, Wadala  Aaliya Khan  VI‐A  2nd prize 

3 St. Xavier's Boys Academy, Marine L  Ali Nulwala  V‐2  3rd prize 

          
   Inters Category       

1 St. Anne Girls High School, Dabul  Disha. S. Pandya  VII‐A  1st Prize 

2 St. Joseph's Convent, Vile Parle  Ashwathi Pillai  VIII‐C  2nd prize 

3 St. Stanislaus High School, Bandra  Darren Fonseca  VII‐A  3rd prize 

          
   Seniors Category       

1 St. Dominic Savio H. School Andheri  Maaz Shaikh  X‐B  1st Prize 

2 St. Anthony's High School  Jason Fernandes  X‐A  2nd Prize 

3 St. Xavier's Boys' Academy  Kunal Malavia  IX‐ 2  3rd prize 

Winning Students will be awarded Certificates of Merit from the AVEC office.
The Certificates will be sent to the respective schools by Courier Service immedi-
ately.. Please acknowledge receipt of Certificates.
Thanks.
DECEMBER COMPETITION: POSTER
AVEC
SAY ‘NO’ TO CHAI PANI …..
Stop Corruption… Start by saying NO
 Values for the Yatra
Archdiocesan Value
Archdiocesan Value Education
Education Centre
Centre(AVEC
(AVEC))E-Letter
E-Letter December
December2010
2010

RESULTS of POSTER COMP.(SEPT)  PEACE through LITERACY. 
   School Name  Student's Name  Class  Remarks 
  JUNIORS  
Salvation High School 
   Dadar  Vallis K. Kieran  6‐C  1st Place 
Mary Immaculate Ka‐
   lina  Abhishree Jain  6‐B  2nd Place 

   Campion High School  Rajvir Ashar  5‐A  3rd Place 

   St.Xavier's Vile Parle  Manav Panchal  5‐D  3rd Place 

    INTERS       
St. Paul's Convent 
   Dadar  Nidhi Jain,Aishwarya J.  8‐A  1st Place 
Auxilium Convent Wa‐
   dala  Aashna Thaker  8‐C  2nd Place 
St.Anthony's Girls 
   H.Sch.Chembur  Vedika Malhotra  7‐B  3rd Place 

Holy Family H.School 
   Pestom Sa  Meghana Chavan  8‐B  3rd Place 
    SENIORS          
St.Anthony's Girls 
   H.Sch.Chembur  Siddi S. Ganesh  9‐B  1st Place 

   Campion High School  Errol Fernandes  X‐A  2nd Place 

Holy Cross Convent 
   Kalyan  Kalyani B. Gajewar  X‐B  3rd Place 
St.Thomas Academy 
   Borivili  Priya P.Dali  X‐A  3rd place 

AVEC E-Letter ‘Values for the Yatra’ is an initiative to provide Animation Resources for
Teachers involved in Value Education in the ABE schools/ Jr. Colleges .
Values for the Yatra will be published every month and is for private circulation.
Your valuable suggestions are most welcome to assist us in making Values for the Yatra
a useful tool of animation and bonding among the teachers and students
of the ABE schools in Mumbai.

CONTACT:
Fr. Glenford Lowe, SDB / Rochwyn Fernandes / Michelle D’Souza
Archdiocesan Value Education Centre—AVEC
Don Bosco Youth Services, Matunga 400019 , MUMBAI
Ph: 24154477 e-mail: avecmatunga@gmail.com
Blog site: www.avecmumbaidbys.blogspot.com