I started my engagement with the Laudato Si’ Movement as a Laudato Si’ Animator (LSA) after which, I have signed up to become an “Animator of Animators” to help and support other LSAs.
Since becoming an Animator of Animators, I have felt a greater responsibility towards caring for our common home.
In working with the three dimensions of the Laudato Si’ Movement’s framework, the work for ecological conversion and footprint reduction was easy to start but I could not say the same for the third dimension of raising a prophetic voice. In Vietnam, organizing protests or even a campaign is very unusual.
In the many sessions organized by the Laudato Si’ Movement, I heard a lot about the Healthy Planet, Healthy People petition.
The campaign is aligned with Laudato Si’ and is with Caritas Dalat’s mission to care for our common home. I signed the Healthy Planet, Healthy People petition and also promoted it to all the staff of Caritas Dalat.
We also promoted the Healthy Planet, Healthy People petition in the 17 villages we work with, with religious congregations, and in parishes. However, we experienced some obstacles.
One was the lack of internet access in communities, and the second was the language barrier. The communities we work with are ethnic minorities who do not speak English and who are unable to sign online. The third obstacle was the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An opportunity presented itself when Caritas Dalat implemented a campaign to supply vegetables to the communities affected by the lockdown.
We had volunteers who helped us harvest vegetables, and it was during those harvests that our volunteers had the chance to explain more about the climate emergency and ecological crisis and the upcoming United Nations 26th Climate Change Conference to take place in Glasgow. We also gathered signatures on paper, and that is how we were able to gather more than 1,600 signatures.