By Francisca López Arias, Province Safeguarding Team, Chile (Province of Bolivia and Chile)

Within the framework of our Good Shepherd commitment to care, dignity, and the creation of healthy environments, the Congregation and the Madre Josefa Foundation carried out, during the months of November and December 2025, two significant initiatives of visits, risk assessment, and formation. These were aimed at strengthening community life, mutual respect, and safeguarding across the various places where the mission is carried out.

Between November 13 and 15, a Visit and Risk Assessment was conducted at the María del Camino Community in Talca, Chile. This initiative brought together 26 participants, including sisters and partners-in-mission. The three days were marked by attentive listening, deep dialogue, shared celebrations, and fraternity, fostering a deeper understanding of the community’s lived reality.

Through individual and group interviews, a risk assessment was conducted—following the experience in 2024 at the Nazareth Community in Puente Alto—with the aim of strengthening the many positive initiatives already in place and proposing new ideas to further enhance community care. In this context, a safeguarding workshop was also held, during which “recipes for dialogue” were created and displayed on the community’s safeguarding wall.

Subsequently, on December 1, a formation day was held with the community and the team of the Madre Josefa Foundation in Iquique, with the participation of 19 people, including Sisters María Inés Vicencio and Eliana Aguilar, together with the Foundation’s team. This gathering, facilitated by Francisca López and Verónica Reyes, made it possible to deepen understanding of updates on healthy environments, tools for team analysis and communication, and to create spaces for reflection, collaborative work, and the projection of future challenges to enrich workplace and community microclimates. Through case analysis and shared dialogue, the commitment to continue building nurturing spaces where respectful treatment is central was renewed.

These initiatives respond to the Congregation’s call to place particular care on communities where elderly sisters live and are also part of the strategic safeguarding plan, which this year has prioritized key locations in order to deepen formation and strengthen a shared commitment to the mission of care and dignity.

[This article was first published in Encuentro, the monthly OLCGS newsletter for the Province of Bolivia-Chile]