Don Bosco Youth Center provides education, nutrition and health services 

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries operate the Don Bosco Youth Center in Mekanisa, an area on the outskirts of the capital city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.* The center provides access to education, nutrition and health services for 400 poor youth. Most of the youth are street children, ages 2-15, who have no place to live or anyone to take care of them.

Salesian missionaries are actively working to fight malnutrition and undernourishment. The center provides a daily lunch for all of the children and dinner for the children who are most in need. The Don Bosco Center also offers a small medical dispensary, which is managed by a nurse. Youth receive first aid, routine health check-ups and medicine when needed. Youth are able to take a hot shower, and hygiene and sanitary supplies are available.

Youth also have assistance with their education at the Don Bosco Youth Center, including a school uniform and school materials such as textbooks, notebooks, pens and pencils. For older children who attend vocational training courses, Salesian missionaries provide transportation to school. In addition, Salesian missionaries pay the school fees of all the center’s children and older youth.

Wasium arrived at Don Bosco Youth Center 15 years ago when he was a child in need of care, food and protection. His young mother brought him to the center because she was desperate because she had no means to raise her son and his younger siblings.

At the center, Wasium had a home with other children his age and in similar circumstances. He was fed, received clothing, and could gain an education he wouldn’t have access to otherwise. Wasium attended elementary school and then middle and high school. He always had excellent grades.

One Salesian said, “He worked hard to get to university where he studied economics and business. He also worked small jobs during his studies that allowed him to help his family. After finishing university, he found a job as a substitute teacher in a private school and then got a job at a banking institution in Addis Ababa. Today, Wasium is a new person who is grateful for all the help he received from the Salesians.”

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world with more than 38% of its population living in poverty, according to Feed the Future. Close to 85% of the country’s workforce is employed in agriculture, but frequent droughts severely affect the agricultural economy leaving more than 12 million people chronically, or at least periodically, food insecure. In addition, more than two-thirds of the population is illiterate.

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Sources:

ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS)

ANS – Africa – Bread of hope and rebirth in Mekanissa and CALM

Salesian Missions – Ethiopia

UNICEF – Ethiopia

*Any goods, services, or funds provided by Salesian Missions to programs located in this country were administered in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including sanctions administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control.