Responding to Laudato Si’: PDO Calls for Strategic Partnership to Safeguard Our Common Home

Kigali, Rwanda – The Salesian Planning and Development Office (PDO) is renewing its commitment to sustainable development by integrating the ecological imperatives of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, into its core mission.

During a recent staff auto-formation session, PDO Director Father Servilien Ufitamahoro issued an urgent call to action, emphasizing that environmental stewardship is not optional but essential for the survival of the vulnerable communities we serve.

During the session, Father Servilien guided the staff through important Church documents, specifically focusing on the Pope’s message regarding our “Common Home.” Highlighting the urgency of the current environmental crisis, Father Servilien reminded the team of a stark reality: “Man himself destroys his house”.

This destruction has profound consequences for the beneficiaries of PDO projects. Father Servilien stressed that the climate crisis is not an isolated environmental issue but a human one, noting that “everything we do impacts our neighbors and vice-versa”.

Stewardship as a Development Strategy

To align the PDO’s work with these global challenges, Father Servilien outlined a vision of “stewardship” regarding the conservation of the environment and the universe. He emphasized that vital resources, specifically water and the climate, must be viewed as “a common good everywhere in the world”.

The Director highlighted that the protection of biodiversity and the maintenance of harmony among all created things are central to the PDO’s mandate. By protecting these common goods, the PDO and its partners directly support the livelihoods of vulnerable populations who rely most heavily on a stable environment for agriculture, health, and security.

A Call for Unified Action

The PDO is now seeking to operationalize this vision through closer collaboration with our funding and implementation partners. Father Servilien challenged the staff—and by extension, our partners—to move beyond observation to active intervention.

Reflecting on the state of the globe, Father Servilien posed the following questions to the team: “When you look at what is happening in the world, what do you think? If you look at people destroying the environment, what do you do?”.

Invitation to Partners

The PDO believes that the answer to these questions lies in joint action. Father Servilien reiterated the Pope’s instruction that “everyone must do their part”.

We are therefore inviting our partners to join us in designing and funding interventions that prioritize environmental resilience. Whether through water security projects, sustainable agriculture, or biodiversity protection, we must ensure that our development work does not merely exist within the environment but actively heals it.

As we move forward, the PDO remains guided by the principle that nothing regarding the fate of the planet is separate from us, “because we are part of our world”. We look forward to working with our partners to turn this shared responsibility into impactful reality for the communities we serve.