CMF Peru Schools: Bringing the 2030 Agenda to Life

Experience of the Sustainable Development Goals

in Claretian schools in Peru

Ronel Angel Chipana Peña cmf

Solidarity and Mission Coordinator and Laudato Si Animator

Claretian Province Peru Bolivia

We always dialogue among Claretians, but this beautiful experience began when we met a group of brothers at the UN. We asked ourselves: What do we Claretians do in this United Nations Organization? And our answer was: we are not diplomats, we do not work for a public entity of a country, a non-governmental organization, etc. We understood that we were missionaries with a missionary spirit.

We understood that we were missionaries with a great desire to take the good news to the whole world and that we used all the means that were possible to fulfill this mission. Then it was when the idea came to our mind that this means could be this Organization called UN, and the Claretians asked ourselves: Why not make this place a strategic place to act and continue evangelizing the world?

We understood that one of the significant concerns of the UN is that countries meet the SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs) with which we must be involved in all countries of the world. Still, especially the Claretian missionaries, since one of our significant concerns is the integral human being. We realized that we should work in Claretian schools in Peru and got down to work. We have already been able to timidly develop some proposals to be implemented in these schools, one of them was to participate in a meeting with our Claretian brothers at the UN. There, we learned the meaning of each of the objectives and how they should be developed in three areas: the person, the environment, and society.

The goals concerning the person are: end poverty, zero hunger, health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, decent work, and economic growth; about the environment are: clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, climate action, underwater life, and terrestrial ecosystems and the goals of societies are aimed at Industry, innovation and infrastructure, reduction of inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, peace, justice and strong institutions and partnerships to achieve the goals.

We experienced a workshop where we learned to recognize that, in some way, we were collaborating with the implementation of an objective in our schools, such as being aware that these must be of quality, and for this, we are working. That is why some are already implemented with ISO 21001; we desire that all of them achieve it.

We have also been working for gender equality, and this is manifested in that most of our workers are women. We do this to provide further scope to this gender so that, little by little, they achieve empowerment in the career they develop, doing it with responsibility and commitment. We have also implemented that our schools are mixed and not only for men. We are committed to decent work and economic growth. We try to ensure that our salaries are fair according to the family basket, and the result is formal with contract signatures and all labor rights. Finally, we work to help our environment with recycling campaigns, planting green areas, and laying ecological bricks.

Our teachers have been implementing all these objectives in the curriculum of their areas, trying to fulfill the desire that the presence of the God of Life is in every corner of the world as Fr. Claret dreamed.

Ronel Angel Chipana Peña cmf