The First Volunteers of the SETE Project Start Training Today

The First Volunteers of the SETE Project Start Training Today

The young volunteers will welcome the pilgrims and deepen their knowledge on the Message of Fatima

Today begins the first shift of the SETE project, through which the Shrine of Fatima is proposing to young adults, aged between 16 and 35, to live an immersive experience as a volunteer. According to the proposal, the participants are expected to participate to the welcoming of the pilgrims in the Shrine, and, in parallel, to develop their knowledge of the Message of Fatima.

This first group is composed of 5 young adults aged between 16 and 35 and coming from the dioceses of Porto, Lisbon and Setubal. The moments of training will be dedicated to the development of some aspects of the practical nature of the services to provide. The dynamics of sharing are part of the bases that the Coordinator of the Service of Information and Assistance to the Pilgrims, Madalena Jesus, wishes to bring to the group. And Marta Couto, who frequently volunteers with the Shrine of Fatima, will communicate, through her own experience, the importance of “welcoming with simplicity.”

The volunteers will collaborate with the teams working in the different spaces visited by the pilgrims: the Chapel of the Apparitions, the Basilicas of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima and of the Holy Trinity, the information point, the Via-Sacra et the monument of Valinhos.

The volunteers of the SETE project will also be responsible for the Youth Centre (Casa do Jovem) of the Shrine of Fatima, opened from Wednesday to Saturday, from 10:00 to 12:30 am and from 3:00 to 6:00 pm, starting from the second week of July and until the first week-end of September.

In this space, the young volunteers will be invited to conceive activities and itineraries targeting the young public, through a creative workshop called “Propose Fatima”.

During the project, the volunteers – who will be duly identified by the SETE project vest and badge –, will be expected to orientate, inform and assist the pilgrims, with specific care brought to the weakest ones.

The key objective of this initiative is to initiate the participants to the experience of Fatima, turning them at the same time into heralds. To this purpose, each shift starts with a Training Meeting on the theme “Young person, what is Fatima telling you?”, on which occasion a synthesis of the Message of Fatima is presented. On the second-to-last day, a Sharing Meeting on the theme “And you, what do you tell Fatima?” will synthesise the experience lived as a volunteer.

At the beginning of each day, in the presence of a team from the Shrine, a moment will be dedicated to prayer and will set the pace of the daily service and of the participants’ reflection on their experience.