A training week was organized by the Chile YCW from July 5 to 9. This enriching experience took place at the El Quisco YCW retreat house, located on the coast of the Valparaiso region. During this event, young people from different communities and backgrounds came together to share experiences, gain new knowledge and reflect on issues that concern our young people. We were delighted to have the active participation of representatives from the Peru YCW as part of our joint efforts to strengthen co-responsibility between the two organizations.

The activists of the Venezuela YCW (JOCV) held their XXVII National Council (NC) in the city of Sanare, Lara State, on April 8-9-10, 2022, with the participation of many people, among them 34 young official delegates from 5 regions of the country (Caracas, Bolivar, Lara, Portugueza and Zulia), with the support of adult collaborators and a representative of the International YCW Secretariat as guests.

The NC was held in memory of our companion Paul Priou, a great reference for the YCW of Venezuela who left this world a few months ago but who remains present in the heart of every young worker as mentioned by Elibeth Villaroel during the official opening of this XXVII NC.

The JOCV had developed an extensive process of preparation, in times of pandemic, convening all current activists, former leaders and adult collaborators, in the national territory and outside the country, in order to enrich the process and the conduct of this NC, despite the impacts created by the international economic blockade and the internal crisis that the country is facing.

Rosa Galeano, a leader of Paraguay YCW, elaborated on how and when the YCW entered the country. She explained that the YCW is a movement that was created at the beginning of the 20^th century on the initiative of a Belgian priest, Joseph Cardijn, and some young workers.

Joseph Cardijn, a Belgian priest, and a number of young working women and men were concerned by the deplorable conditions experienced in Belgium by their fellow workers in factories, spinning mills, mines and in the families living in working-class areas.

“In Paraguay, the movement arrived through Monsignor Ramón Bogarín Argaña in 1941, and from that year onwards its most important moments were until the 1970s. Then, like all social organisations, it began to fade away due to the persecutions of the dictatorship,” Rosa said.