A concept of Pope Francis expressed in “Fratelli Tutti” has inspired Palms Australia members and staff during lockdown to develop Neighbours Without Borders (NWB).
Drawing on Palms Australia’s experience since 1961 of preparing people for cross-cultural engagement, NWB is designed to assist communities embrace their diversity and flourish in growing harmony.
This is important in an “Australia … still … struggling for an identity that includes all its citizens: one that the citizens can accept as truthful and then work together for the common good of the society.”
Palms Australia has begun offering NWB to local governments, schools, churches, and the wider community.
It begins by assisting communities to explore andreplace any suspicion and fear of difference, with recognition of, and excitement, for community growth.
The process provides creative frameworks and activities that enable all cultures and sub-cultures to bring their strengths to inclusive community development.
As Pope Francis says a “People is not a logical category, … Rather, it is a mythic category …. To be part of a people is to be part of a shared identity arising from social and cultural bonds. And that is not something automatic, but rather a slow, difficult process… of advancing towards a common project”.
NWB delivers tailored intercultural training to develop the awareness, knowledge and skills needed to interact appropriately and effectively within culturally diverse communities.
Palms Executive Director Roger O’Halloran said the sessions extrapolate beyond the differences between ethnic cultures to provide a framework that can be applied to improve our understanding of work cultures, religious cultures, the cultures of different generations, or any sub-culture one needs to understand.
“These sessions encourage us to open our hands to the world with cultural humility; to appreciate the cultural diversity that can help us to become valuable to others as leaders and wisdom thinkers.”
Palms is inviting representatives to participate in four days of the program from 9 to 12 of January 2022, at the OLSH Conference and Retreat Centre in Southern Highlands, NSW.
Those sent will be trained alongside those preparing for mission abroad, so the training is offered without charge.
Only venue accommodation and meal costs of $150 per day need to be covered.
In 1962, Palms Australia held its first ever Pre-Departure Orientation Course for participants in Palms assignments abroad about to head into their overseas placements. Since then, Palms Australia’s expert led training has become nationally renowned as an essential element of effective development assignments.
More than 1550 Australians, at 103 Orientation Courses, have been prepared to engage in these challenging cross-cultural relationships to build understanding, acceptance, and care, and provide the assistance requested, across 41 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.
The preparation has always had a significant focus on inspiring participants to engage in mutually enriching and challenging relationships of understanding, acceptance, and care, and to share worlds of meaning in the deepest sense, with a people of a culture different to one’s own.
