The 3rd Latin American Congress of Lasallian Alumni took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia, under the slogan “Sharing our commitment to service”.
The event was organised by the Association of Former Students of Colegio La Salle de Cochabamba and was held thanks to the support of the Congregation of the Brothers of the Christian Schools of La Salle and with the committed encouragement of the Secretary for Mission, Management and Organisation of the Latin American Lasallian Region – RELAL (Br. Vinicio González Gramajo); the Visitor Brother of the District of Bolivia Peru (Br. Jorge Aguilar Reina); the President of the World Union of Lasallian Former Students – UMAEL (Alejandro Galván Illanes); and SOMOS La Salle.
The Association of Former Students of La Salle Cochabamba took up the challenge because it considered it essential to continue working to consolidate the organisation of former students of the Region with the aim of sharing all that they had learned in the classrooms of La Salle and thus contribute to improving the living conditions of Bolivian and Latin American society, guided by Faith, Fraternity and Service.
Within this framework, an invitation was extended to the representatives of the former students of other educational works of the Church so that the OMAEC correspondent for Bolivia (Carlos Arroyo) could present the organisation and propose to begin work of coordination with a view to setting up a national body of former students of Catholic education in Bolivia.
Although, for various reasons, only the representative of the Salesian alumni (Oscar Amaya) took part in the meeting, it was also possible to share information about OMAEC with the 25 participants of the congress who came from countries such as Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Bolivia (representatives of associations from La Paz, Oruro, Trinidad, Pando and Cochabamba). Likewise, the conditions were created so that, together with the representative of the Salesians and the representative of La Salle, a next meeting could be convened in the month of November.
Carlos Arroyo – OMAEC Bolivie Correspondent
