NEWS

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the IMS General Assembly was organised as a residual Assembly which allowed delegates to vote on resolutions and elect the members of the new Steering Committee. At the same time, a time of exchange took place on the same day, thanks to a videoconference system. Despite the disappointment of not being able to meet all together, this afternoon allowed a constructive and warm exchange of views.

After a time of prayer, the President, Sister Elisabeth Auliac, thanked on behalf of IMS the administrators as well as the technical advisors at the end of their mandate. Then the administradors candidates and the candidates for the Control Commission were presented. The President then recalled the resolutions to be voted on by the delegates, the reports, presentations of the candidates and other official documents that had been provided to them beforehand.

The time of exchange continued with a video message from Cardinal Philippe Ouedraogo, Archbishop of Ouagadougou and President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) to the attention of IMS.

In her speech, Sister Elisabeth Auliac took up the important points mentioned by Cardinal Philippe Ouedraogo, notably the missionary, economic and solidarity issues of IMS and also the need to set up a care network. The President then gave the floor to Brother Henri Vignau and the IMS legal counsel Maitre Millet-Ursin who presented, in a pre-recorded video, the work on the new statutes. This also made it possible to deepen and or rediscover the history of IMS.

The report of the Control Commission on the accounts of the triennial financial year having been made available in advance on a downloading platform with an explanatory video by Mr Dominique Bruiet, administrative and financial director of the Union Saint-Martin, the participants were able to listen, in addition, to the intervention of Mrs de Dianous, chartered accountant and Sister Alphonso, both members of the Control Commission.

The decisions taken by the Board on 16 November were then presented with the decision to take better care of optics.  A question and answer session provided an opportunity for an exchange of views and concrete answers to the questions raised by the Sections in particular. On the question of development, the participants were able to watch the IMS promotional video prepared by the Central America Section.

A video message from Father Emmanuel Boudet, President of the Union Saint Martin and a speech by Mr. Jean-Noël Dussart, General Manager, then explained more precisely what the Union Saint Martin is and how it works.

Sister Eugénie Yvette Ebolo, Handmaid of the Holy Heart of Mary had proposed to organise a round table on hypertension for this 2020 General Assembly. With the pandemic, this was no longer possible but Sister Ebolo agreed to prepare a video information sequence with testimonies and prevention advice.  In particular, Sister Ebolo filmed and interviewed a patient, a nurse and a doctor.

Then the voting results available on the Neovote platform were announced. All the resolutions were approved and the members of the Steering Committee and the Control Commission were elected.

In her closing intervention, the President took up some words of Pope Francis in the encyclical Tutti Fratelli which encourage IMS in the sense of service and solidarity.

 

This afternoon was an opportunity to make known to all the work carried out by the various members of IMS and to meet together to exchange, improve the services of IMS and live a fraternal time. A big thank you to everyone for their active participation in this reunion !

At the end of the Assembly, the new Steering Committee met and elected the members of the Bureau : Sister Elisabeth Auliac, President, Father Pierre-Yves Pecqueux, Vice-President, Father Michel Girard, General Secretary, Sister Aubierge Amoussou, Treasurer, Sister Chantal Gérard, member of the Bureau.