Salesians discuss Radio Don Bosco project to provide more educational content for youth

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries with the Mary Immaculate Vice-Province of Madagascar in Ivato, Madagascar, met with the directors of Catholic radio stations and the heads of Salesian vocational training centers. They discussed a new Radio Don Bosco Madagascar project known as “Improvement of the quality of Radio Don Bosco and expansion of the offer through distance learning and media education.”

A Salesian representative with Radio Don Bosco said, “We will have several things to do together. We are working on the strategic and programmatic reorientation of Radio Don Bosco Madagascar and Radio Don Bosco Live to address challenges of young people in Madagascar. The goal is to make the content of the programs more educational.”

Since its inception, Radio Don Bosco Madagascar has demonstrated its adaptability and response to internal changes or external needs with strategic reorientation that has allowed it to remain current. Now, as part of this project, the knowledge and skills of the radio staff will be updated to allow them to provide the educational programs more effectively.

By promoting social and educational content that helps youth gain an education and be ready for employment, Salesians are helping youth who traditionally have had insufficient access to education and who have seen their educational and social condition deteriorate further because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are also plans to offer additional training measures to promote the use of information and communication technologies in educational institutions.

Salesian missionaries have been living and working in Madagascar since 1981. Today, they have 11 centers and work in several locations, including the Don Bosco House in Ivato in the outskirts of the capital of Antananarivo, where Salesians have focused support.

Madagascar, an island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. Seventy percent of Madagascar’s almost 19 million people live in poverty with 5.7 million of those youth between the ages of 10-24, according to UNICEF. This number is expected to double by 2025.

For close to 80 percent of the country’s inhabitants who live in rural areas and practice subsistence farming, living conditions have been steadily declining in recent years, particularly when it comes to access to transportation, health services, education and markets. Because of the lack of hygiene and access to safe drinking water, coupled with chronic malnutrition, people in Madagascar often suffer from respiratory ailments, tuberculosis and hepatitis.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Madagascar – Workshop of information and sharing for Radio Don Bosco Madagascar’s new project

Salesian Missions – Madagascar

UNICEF – Madagascar