BELGIUM: Young volunteer spends year supporting youth in Salesian programs
Volunteers work alongside Salesian sisters, Salesian missionaries
(MissionNewswire) Mats Hovelaque, a 19-year-old from Belgium, has been working with Salesians in the Ivory Coast through VIDES (Volunteers in Development, Education and Solidarity). The volunteer program places young adults on short-term or long-term volunteer missions.
Volunteers work alongside Salesian sisters and Salesian missionaries in educational and social programs. Hovelaque devoted a year to volunteering before starting his university studies. This experience began last year, when a friend told him about a volunteer camp supporting migrants in Calais. Hovelaque decided to visit it in person and spend two weeks there. The experience of working alongside the Salesians and his peers left a deep impression on him.
“I saw Jesus at work,” he said. “Among the migrants, during Mass, during the teachings and during moments of dialogue, he is there. We stood alongside the migrants. We didn’t bring much, but I hope we were a ray of sunshine for them.”
Following that experience, Hovelaque began his year of voluntary service, first in Paris, where he worked in a reception center for asylum seekers, reaching out to young people, and then in Tunisia, where he worked in a Salesian school. From there, he returned to Belgium where he helped out at a boarding school run by Salesian sisters.
In February 2026, his volunteer mission sent him to the Salesian community in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. He spent most of his time working at a shelter for children in need.
Hovelaque said, “I’ll never forget one young boy at the shelter who was very wary of me when I first arrived. After a few days, we’d become very good friends. It was only later that I learnt he was being mistreated at home, and so I realized why he’d been afraid at first. I cannot begin to imagine the things they have been through in their lives. Thanks to the shelter, they have a place where they are loved, a place where they can feel at home.”
Hovelaque explained that he was also fortunate enough to take part in a three-day diocesan pilgrimage. “There were 6,000 young people there. The atmosphere was incredible. I also had the opportunity to visit two other communities in the Ivory Coast,” he continued. “I got to know the Ivorians better. I was surprised by their kindness and serenity. What struck me was that family is very important to them. There really is a spirit of family and fraternity. There is no materialism, but a great deal of spirituality.”
Hovelaque highlighted that he liked that Muslims and Christians lived in harmony and reflected that it is what being Christian is all about — to be at peace with one another.
A month after his return home, Hovelaque said he was truly grateful for this experience. He is grateful to the Salesians and all of those he met along his volunteering journey.
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Sources:
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