Indonesian YCW leader, Ludovicus Mardiyono has been elected as the incoming president of the International YCW.

Working with him will be Itzhak from YCW Namibia as secretary-general while Arlindo Oliveira from Brazil will continue as treasurer.

Among other candidates, Ikin Rahmat also from Indonesia will join the IYCW Asia Pacific team in Hong Kong.

The election took place at the 12th IYCW International Council in Accra, Ghana.

CCI Convenor Stefan Gigacz welcomed the appointments.

"Congratulations to Mardi and his new colleagues. They have accepted challenging and demanding roles," Stefan Gigacz said.

"CCI looks forward to working with the team for the benefit of workers and to promote Cardijn."


More to come.

Just weeks after celebrating the 50th anniversary of his ordination, former Hong Kong YCW chaplain Fr Tom Danaher MM has died in the US.

"I discovered hope within the people struggling against repression and torture..such hope could only [come] from God, " Fr Tom said in a quote published on the Maryknoll Twitter Feed last month.

Ordained on June 9, 1962, Father Danaher's foreign mission assignments included:

1963-1965: Parish priest at Our Lady of Nativity Parish, Tung Tau Tsuen, Kowloon.

1965-1969: St. Peter in Chains Parish, Kowloontsai, Kowloon. He served as chaplain for the Young Christian Workers in that parish.

1966-1969: Along with other Maryknoll priests and non-clergy, formed a labor advisory team to address industrial labor disputes.

1973-1980: Served as chaplain of the Young Christian Workers National Team. He worked to obtain better living and working conditions for the people. He lived and ministered at a workers' center in Pui Man Village in Kowloon City.

1976-1981: Maryknoll magazine's Asian correspondent.

1984-1986: Pastoral duties at a parish in Santiago, Chile.

1997-2009: Asia - Hong Kong – Assistant Pastor at St. Matthew the Apostle Parish, Tuen Mun and ministered at Tai Lam Women's Prison.

"Former YCW will have a Memorial Mass for Tom on 29 August, at 7:30pm in St Stephen Parish, Kowloon," said Mary Ho Fung Bing, former Hong Kong and IYCW Asia-Pacific YCW leader.

Update:

Father Tom died very peacefully Monday morning August 13th at a hospital in Sleepy Hollow, New York (near Maryknoll headquarters), a family member informed us.

"He had been in a care unit at Maryknoll since June. Last week, he developed pneumonia and was taken to the hospital. He was in no pain, and was given the best care possible." 

His funeral will be held on Monday 21 August.

LINK

Tom Danaher MM (Cardijn Priests)

The 13th IYCW World Council opened in Accra, Ghana yesterday addressing the theme 'Young Workers as Actors of Change'.

"Young workers must take up the cause of young workers and continue the struggle to improve their working conditions, fight for dignity and be actors for change," IYCW president Geethani Peries told Ghana News Agency.

Mr Lucas Anao Apiining, National President of the YCWM, Ghana, said, the summit attracted about 75 workers and supporters from all over the world, to evaluate, analyse, plan, coordinate, strengthen and realize the IYCW international social protection campaign, Vibe Ghana adds.

He said the objective of the movement was to organize young workers across the World to fight for change in their living conditions as future leaders, adding that, “it’s time to build a new world fighting together, and acting together as we need to fight for the freedom of all.”

Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra chaired the opening ceremony at the Council.

He said young people below 35years of age in Africa constitute about 65 per cent and that they were the majority and deserved to be treated as future leaders.

He advised them to be serious with any activity that they might find themselves in and appealed to them to be dedicated and committed to their religious duties.



SOURCE

13th YCW International conference opens in Accra (Vibe Ghana)

13th YCW International conference opens in Ghana (Ghana News Agency)

MORE DETAILS

IYCW 12th World Council, Accra, Ghana

PHOTO

Jose Calatayud

A Cambodian domestic worker in Malaysia told human rights activist Irene Fernandez that she used to suck the fish bones left on her employer’s dinner plate, because she was only given leftovers to eat.

Another said she was forced to cook, clean and care for children from 5 a.m. until past midnight, the New York Times reports.


“It’s so dehumanizing,” Ms. Fernandez told the paper. “To me, it’s just slavery days coming back — and that’s just frightening.”

Ms. Fernandez’s first job was as a teacher, but at the age of 23, she left the security of a government job for the life of an activist with the Malaysian YCW and later the women’s rights movement.

The accounts of abuse she has heard led Ms. Fernandez to conclude that Malaysia does not do enough to protect migrant workers, she told The Jakarta Post, an Indonesian newspaper, in May.

But the Malaysian government was not happy.

“While there may not be specific laws for migrant workers, Malaysia has sufficient laws to protect all workers, including foreign workers,” Ms. Maznah was quoted as saying in The Star, a Malaysian newspaper.

A police spokesman said Monday that the investigation was still under way and it had not yet been decided whether to charge Ms. Fernandez. Charges may be less likely given that Prime Minister Najib Razak recently announced that he intends to repeal the Sedition Act.

SOURCE

Malaysian Activist Speaks Out for Migrant Workers (New York Times)