NIGERIA: Youth from Lira Diocese Elected IYCS Secretary General
Mr. Odongo Innocent From Lira Diocese, Newly Elected IYCS Secretary General
Mr. Odongo Innocent from the Catholic Diocese of Lira, Uganda has been elected Secretary General of the International Young Catholic Students Movement (IYCS) during the just concluded 16th World Council meeting, which took place in Abuja Nigeria from August 30 to September 10 held under the theme: “taking action for peace here and now!”
Until his appointment, Odongo was the IYCS Africa Regional Coordinator based in Nairobi, Kenya where he was in charge of 34 member countries grouped into Sub-Regions namely, Eastern Africa, Central Africa, Western Africa Francophone, Western Africa Anglophone and Southern Africa sub-region. He will now move to Paris, France where the International Secretariat of the youth movement is based.
IYCS is a Catholic action movement of the apostolate of Laity inspired by the spirituality of Cardinal Joseph Cardijn (the founder of the Young Christian Workers). It is traditionally an evangelization agent in schools mainly composed of students in secondary and tertiary institution and currently has a total of 87 Member Countries from across the world. These are subdivided into regions according to continents; these include the Africa Region; the Middle East & Asia Region, Europe, Latin America and the Pacific Region which includes Australia.
After every four years, the movement holds world council meeting where each member country sends representative. The just concluded meeting in Abuja Nigeria came after the 15th World Council meeting which was held four years ago in the Philippines.
“The World Youth Council meeting is usually combined with a global training sessions based on a particular theme following a campaign that the youths are running. So the Abuja Training sought to interrogate and offer solution to the crises of significant number of young people who are not yet actively engaged in peacebuilding processes and who at times are weighed down by their crises of identity due to increasing external psychosocial pressures,” Odongo said in an interview with AMECEA Online News.
The global training session reflected on five key pillars for action on youth, peace and security that includes participation, protection, prevention, partnerships, and disengagement and reintegration as identified in the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 (UNSCR 2250). These were geared towards proposing concrete actions that will contribute to the work the Church and many Nations of the world are undertaking in order for young people to participate meaningfully in peace processes.
The meeting usually takes two weeks with the first one being dedicated for the trainings on the thematic issues. The second week of the World Council Meeting is dedicated to business session where IYCS Statutory issues are deliberated upon.
Regional Office in Nairobi Kenya (Images Courtesy)
“It is in the business session that we review the IYCS statutes as well as evaluate the last strategic plan while at the same time coming up with thematic areas that we can focus on for the next four years,” Odongo explained adding that the climax of it is the election of the international office bearers based at the international office in Paris, France. Usually two lay members are elected as well as one Catholic priest.
Over the past 13 years Odongo has diligently served the YCS Movement in various leadership roles at section, diocesan, national and regional level. He is confident that his experience, skills and network gained will be invaluable in executing his duties as Secretary General of IYCS.
The 29 year-old graduate from Makerere University holds Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences with a specialization in social work, and public administration.
∽End∽
By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News
