Reading Room

Reading Room

My contribution to Sunday Nation, Kenya

selvam Articles/Chapters, Varia

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26 April 2020
Covid-19 tests self-learning skills of students today

Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the status quo of the contemporary society on several fronts. Its impact has been felt across almost every aspect of life, including healthcare services, economics, entertainment industry and sports, work and family life, and in religious and educational practices. Amidst these global disruptions, the winners have been the contemporary twins, Information Technology (IT) and internet.

On the education front, the immediate focus has been on providing an emergency response, to keep the learning going remotely via the internet. If our investment of resources right now just targets a stop gap measure, we might miss an opportunity to make a systemic change to education. Covid-19 has thrust us by force, as it were, into how education ought to be carried out […]

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Salesian Mission and the HIV prevention programme in South & East Africa

selvam Reading Room

Salesian Mission and the HIV prevention programme in South & East Africa:
The Background: It is true that there was an “Life Choices: Abstinence and Being Faithful Programme” run by the Salesians in South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania. It is important to note that while in South Africa it was run only in Cape Town – in one community, in Kenya and Tanzania, it was run in all the institutions of Salesians of Don Bosco and some of the institutions of the Salesian Sisters.  It is also true that the five year project (2005 to 2010) was funded by USAID and PEPFAR. The Salesian Mission at Washington had applied for the funding on behalf of the Salesians in the three countries and had acted as the office for monitoring and evaluation of the project.
 The current web-news concerns the allegations by means of a journalistic report made by Lepanto Institute and re-reported by […]

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Psychology of Conversion of Youth & Call to Religious Life

selvam Uncategorized

I made a presentation at the 4th Theological Symposium held at Don Bosco Utume on 30th March 2015.  The two-day symposium has as its theme: Consecrated Life and the Life of Youth.  The annual symposium this year commemorates the Bicentenary of the Birth of Don Bosco – the Founder of the Salesians of Don Bosco, hence the focus on youth.  It is also a contribution to the Year of Consecrated (Religious) Life.
My presentation brought together three elements: youth, conversion, and religious life.
Using emerging data from psychology of religious conversion of youth, the first part of the paper states some underlying patterns in conversion. The second part applies those patterns in understanding the dynamics of spirituality youth who join religious life.  Attachment Theory is much used in the analysis.  Implication of secure attachment and avoidant attachment on gradual and sudden conversion, and their possible impact on religious life is discussed.
TO DOWNLOAD […]

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Youth Development in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities

selvam Talks & Presentations, Varia, Youth Research

DSC_0008_4Youth Development in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities
 My presentation on 9 March 2015, at a joint teleconference between Institute of Youth Studies at Tangaza University College, Kenya and the Institute of Family Studies at the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland.
The purpose of the paper was to provoke some discussion among the students of both the institutions.
Preliminary Remarks
0.1. It could come as a surprise to some of my listeners that the speaker this afternoon is not an African.  This is the advantage that scientific method offers us.  A person from anywhere could scientifically look at a global or local phenomenon anywhere using the methodology of science.  This said, having lived in two countries in the African continent for the past 23 years, and having travelled across the continent visiting at least 10 other countries, I […]

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