Using a power point presentation and a handout given to all those present Fr. Manuel Fernandez gave a brief outline of the history of Haren Alde and spoke of how grateful he was to all those who had worked and shown such dedication during the past eighteen years of its existence before going on to outline the present situation.
In his presentation he highlighted the challenges Haren Alde faces at this time brought on by the great evolution seen in the charity sector and showed a ten point proposal for restructuring it.
The main objective of this plan is to make Haren Alde the privileged channel of solidarity for the whole Augustinian Recollect Order, for it to serve as a link to the numerous private and public institutions that deal with development, to set up better contacts with society and offer those religious who work in areas of development a useful and effective instrument for promoting their social programmes.
Over and above this Manuel Fernández presented a resumé of the present situation with the areas of development Haren Alde has worked on: 201 projects made possible in 19 countries.
Comparisons
To help put forward his argument Fr. Manuel Fernández compared Haren Alde with 13 othe NGOs run by religious congregations or similar institutions. This made it possible for the delegates to the Chapter to see the opportunities and the risks the NGO might have to face in the future
Then he presented different approaches that would allow for a more professional footing for the NGO: sufficient qualified personnel, a more rationalized infrastructure, an efficient body of volunteers, external audits that would facilitate the diverse administrative tasks that go with the ordinary day to day of an NGO that is open to other institutions and in constant contact with public bodies at state, regional and local levels.
New web page
And lastly the president of Haren Alde gave a guided presentation of the NGOs new web page, which is hoped will bring people that bit closer, offering information that is adequate, pertinent and accessible. It is hoped the web page will be a means to bring together the benefactors, members and religious of the Order so they will know about the works that are underway and the multiple help channels there are around
And so Haren Alde has been present in the most important forum we have and which decides and develops the programmes the Order has. Afterwards the delegates at the General Chapter will revisit the themes presented by Haren Alde. The NGO will be ever more transparent and efficient in meeting the challenge of making real the tasks of social development within the programmes of evangelization that all Augustinian Recollect have.