Youth living in Nairobi’s slums are at risk for exploitation, forced labor and other abuses. Few attend the later stages of school as compared to those living in Kenya’s more rural areas. The few schools serving this disadvantaged community are beyond the financial means of most families. UNICEF noted that while Kenya has free and compulsory education, youth in poverty still cannot afford to attend school resulting in close to 90 percent of children from poor households failing to complete their basic education.

The Bosco Boys program provides education and workforce development opportunities. Students in the program who complete their primary education are assisted with secondary education or are advised to choose technical training in sister institutions. The secondary education is most often provided at Don Bosco Technical Secondary School in the town of Embu, northeast of Nairobi, but can also be at another school close to a student’s home where they can be easily monitored.

“The school attracts youth that do not do well on national college exams and provides them an alternative opportunity to acquire marketable skills that can help them make a living,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “The tuition cost of the training is highly subsidized to make it affordable for the low income student population in Kenya.”

In addition to the education provided, youth in the program are given professional counseling to help them overcome any difficulties they may face in their lives. Through counseling and other activities, the program gives youth the tools to develop a positive healthy outlook on life and the education and training necessary to find stable employment.

Two-year technical training programs are offered through Bosco Boys in a wide variety of vocational skills including tailoring, car engineering/mechanics, carpentry, electrical work and welding as well as secretarial skills and a full spectrum of computer-related job skills. After graduation more than 80 percent of graduates are employed in their fields of study. Many students go on to attend university or establish their own businesses and become entrepreneurs in Nairobi.

Eric Matata, a graduate of the Bosco Boys program, recently received his law degree from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. He credits the rigorous education and support he received while at Bosco Boys for helping to achieve his educational dreams. Matata received financial assistance to pay for university from Heinz Rovelring through the offices of Don Bosco Mondo, Germany, as well as support from the Jasani Memorial Sterling Trust. Mr. Mathenge, a volunteer counselor from the Bosco Boys program, also contributed towards Matata’s tuition fees.

“All youth deserve a chance at a better life,” adds Fr. Hyde. “At Bosco Boys, Salesian missionaries help young people take responsibility for their own lives and train them in the skills necessary to find and retain employment in order to support themselves and improve their communities.”

Despite the steady growth of Kenya’s economy, according to UNICEF, more than half of the country’s population lives below the poverty line on less than $1 a day. UNICEF also notes that Nairobi is home to 3 million residents, most of whom endure lives of extreme poverty in the city’s slums. The most vulnerable are families and children living in these urban slums and in areas of the country most affected by HIV/AIDS. Many do not have access to healthcare, nutrition, sanitation or education.

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Sources:

Salesians of Don Bosco Province of Eastern Africa

UNICEF – Kenya Statistics

The post KENYA: Bosco Boys Programs Help Street Youth Gain an Education and Hope for the Future first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Each World Water Day focuses on a particular theme. This year’s theme is ‘Water and Sustainable Development’ and focuses on the connection between water resources and sustainable development for the future. Water is at the core of sustainable development and relates directly to the viability of poverty reduction, economic growth and environmental sustainability.

According to UN-Water, the United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism on all freshwater related issues, 1.3 billion people cannot access electricity, 768 million people lack access to improved water sources and 2.5 billion people have no improved sanitation, worldwide. For those who have no access to clean water, water related disease is common with more than 840,000 people dying each year from water related diseases.

In addition, women and children bear the primary responsibility for water collection in the majority of households, and globally, spend 140 million hours a day collecting water. Children in these communities are forced to walk for hours to collect drinking water—water that often proves contaminated, and seriously sickens those who consume it. Many others are unable to attend school regularly because they must spend time searching for distant wells.

In response to this crisis, Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, has made building wells and supplying fresh, clean water, a top priority for every community in every country in which Salesian missionaries work.

“Water is essential for life,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions. “From helping to ensure our communities have access to clean water for drinking and agriculture to helping build a hydro-electric power station, Salesian missionaries working in 132 countries around the globe are always looking to expand their services to meet the needs of the poor youth and families they serve.”

In honor and celebration of World Water Day 2015, Salesian Missions is proud to highlight Salesian programs around the globe that provide clean, safe water to those most in need.

CAMBODIA

Salesian missionaries have a long history of working with poor youth in Cambodia. Continuing this work, the Don Bosco Technical School in Kep Province built a new water tower as part of a Water System Project at the school that was made possible by donors from Don Bosco Mondo in Bonn, Germany. Christened the Mary Help of Youth Water Tower and constructed by a group of volunteers, the tower provides more water than traditional wells, which are relied upon by most people in the region, as it goes deeper into the ground and has two reserve tanks to hold additional water. It also utilizes green technologies by featuring a water pump that is generated by installed solar panels. The Mary Help of Youth Water Tower will guarantee water for this large educational community for years to come.

INDIA

With more than 1.2 billion people, India’s growing population is putting a severe strain on the country’s natural resources. Salesian missionaries across India are dedicated to ensuring that access to safe water is a priority in Salesian-run programs and schools and in the communities in which they operate. In Mumbai, alumni from the class of 1969 at Don Bosco High School in Matuga recently enacted the Aqua Pure Water Project. This alumni-led volunteer project is ensuring clean water access at the school for nearly 3,500 children. A.V. Suresh, alumnus of Don Bosco High School, Matuga and CEO of Eureka Forbes, a water purification company, installed the water purification system at the school. As part of the project, he promised that the Eureka Forbes company would commit itself to providing clean drinking water to the school for the next 10 years. In addition, the company is initiating a collaborative project with Don Bosco High School for water harvesting and water recycling at the school which, when it is completed, will be the first of its kind in the country.

KENYA

Residents in Kenya face regular water and sanitation shortages. To address the need for clean, safe water, a water borehole restoration project is underway at the Salesian-run Bosco Boys community in Nairobi, Kenya. Made possible thanks to the generosity of donors, the project entails removing all the pipes and the electric pump in an existing 250 meter borehole, cleaning the pipes, replacing rotten ones and removing a massive amount of mud. The restoration of the borehole will ensure proper function of a well on the property while providing clean, safe water for students and faculty at the Bosco Boys community.

SIERRA LEONE

Don Bosco Fambul, a leading Salesian educational organization serving disadvantaged youth in Sierra Leone, in collaboration with Brunnenbau Conrad Ltd, a German drilling company, has installed a new water well at Pademba Road Prison in Freetown. The prison faces overcrowding and inadequate food and due to compromised infrastructure, has experienced a serious water crisis with a lack of clean drinking water and water for healthy sanitation and hygiene. The new well will provide 60,000 liters of water each day and new storage facilities to house the water supply will allow for 40 liters of water per prisoner each day.

TANZANIA

Like many poor nations around the world, Tanzania struggles to provide clean, safe water to its citizens. Salesian missionaries living and working in Tanzania focus their programs on the educational and social development needs of youth and their families while working to provide safe, clean water for their students. Well digging and restoration projects are underway at Salesian Missions facilities in Tanzania with new wells being created and older wells that have rotten pipes, often filled with mud, being cleaned and replaced in order to bring water to students and faculty involved in Salesian programs.

Sources

UN World Water Day 2015

The post WORLD WATER DAY: Salesian Missions Programs Provide Access to Safe Water in Poor Communities around the Globe first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has taken its toll on Zambia’s children. More than 20,000 households in the country are headed by children whose parents have died because of HIV/AIDS. Many of these young children are desperate for adult support to help meet their basic needs.

Salesians in the country continue to expand their programs to respond to the needs of poor youth. In early 2014, Don Bosco Secondary School Mansa was started to provide formal secondary school education to youth living in the Luapula Region of Zambia, located in the northern part of the country on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The school took two years to build and is a companion to an elementary school operated by Salesian Sisters that has been providing quality primary education for several years. Funding for the new school came from Don Bosco Mondo in Bonn, Germany as well as other partners. The new school reinforces the education mission of the Salesians in Zambia who have been educating poor youth living on the outskirts of Mansa for more than a decade.

For the past several years, in addition to the elementary school, Salesians have been running the St. James Catholic Parish and a youth center for young people from the heavily populated Chimese and Senama compounds. The new school will address the need for secondary education for youth who would otherwise not attend school at all or would have to travel very far distances to gain a secondary education.

The new school has spacious classrooms and administrative offices and expansion is already being considered as the school’s programs progress. Started with an emphasis on the social sciences, the school’s administrators are hoping to expand programs to offer courses in natural sciences and technology.

“Access to quality education provides a stepping stone out of poverty for poor youth,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “This school will allow youth to easily transition from the Salesian primary school into continued education in the secondary school where students begin to focus on finding a career path and learning the skills needed to lead a productive life.”

Recently, the new secondary school was the setting for a meeting to mark the launch of a fast track teacher training program. The program is a collaboration between St. Eugene University and the Zambia Ministry of Education at Don Bosco Secondary School. Through this program, the Ministry of Education is upgrading the knowledge and certification of some 2000 teachers, as a way of improving education standards in the country.

To address the shortage of qualified teachers in schools, the teacher training program will enable teachers on government sponsorship to upgrade from certificate to diploma and from diploma to degree level. St. Eugene University will provide the advanced degree education to teachers, many of whom are graduating from Salesian schools.

“Teachers are the backbone of the Salesian educational system and we are dedicated to providing the support and training they need,” adds Fr. Hyde. “The value of strong teachers can be seen in the accomplishments of youth that graduate from their classes. Access to education and well-qualified teachers are critical to help youth learn job skills, improve their lives and find a path out of poverty.”

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Sources:

Don Bosco Secondary School Zambia

UNICEF – Zambia

The post ZAMBIA: Salesians Launch New Secondary School to Provide Ongoing Education for Marginalized Youth first appeared on MissionNewswire.

An estimated 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation and hygiene-related causes. Close to 99 percent of those deaths occur in developing countries with children being most at risk—a child dies from a water-related illness every 21 seconds. Each day worldwide, an estimated 4,100 children under the age of five die from diarrhea and 2,350 more die from malnutrition due to dirty water, inadequate sanitation and hygiene.

Women and children bear the primary responsibility for water collection in the majority of households. For women, particularly those that are head of households, this is time spent away from income-generating jobs and caring for family members. Children in these communities are forced to walk for hours to collect drinking water—water that often proves contaminated and seriously sickens those who consume it. Many of these children are unable to attend school regularly because they must spend time searching for distant wells.

In response to this crisis, Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, has made building wells and supplying fresh, clean water a top priority for every community in every country in which Salesian programs help vulnerable youth and others living in poverty. The charity is appealing for donations to support this important initiative.

“The poorest children have the least access to safe water and adequate sanitation and they pay the highest price,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions. “From helping to ensure our communities have access to clean water for drinking and agriculture to helping build a hydro-electric power station, Salesian missionaries working in 132 countries around the globe are committed to focusing on clean water and sanitation projects to ensure clean water access for those we serve.”

Salesian Missions has a long history of developing special infrastructure projects that help communities in need. In addition to building hospitals, schools and youth centers, Salesians have already helped communities which lack clean water, sanitation and electricity. From new water wells in countries throughout Africa to a hydro-electrical station in Bolivia, Salesian Missions and its partners are bringing hope to many communities.

“This is not new work for Salesian programs around the globe,” adds Fr. Hyde. “We have carried out clean water projects in many countries but this is a renewed commitment to these initiatives because access to clean water is essential for the health of those we serve. It is also important for youth to be in school gaining an education and laying the foundation for a productive life instead of being forced to search for water.”

To give to the Salesian Missions Clean Water Initiative, to to SalesianMissions.org.

Some examples of Salesian Missions clean water projects:

BRAZIL
To address serious water issues resulting from pesticide pollution in a remote area of western Brazil, Salesian Missions worked with members of the Xavante and Bororo Indian communities to obtain clean water from previously inaccessible areas. To do so, they first created wells and designed a mobile drilling truck. To create power, they invented and patented a seesaw pump that would draw water from the depths of the well as children were playing. Now, solar panels are used. The result is reduced risk of disease, access to potable water, improved infrastructure and expanded farming. The endeavor began as an immediate response to a community crisis but has become a well-organized project that ensures the growth of two indigenous groups.

CAMBODIA
Salesians have a long history of working with poor youth in Cambodia. Continuing this work, the Don Bosco Technical School in Kep Province built a new Mary Help of Youth Water Tower as part of a Water System Project at the school that was made possible by donors through Don Bosco Mondo in Bonn, Germany. Its construction will guarantee water for this large educational community for years to come. Most people in the region utilize well water and this tower, constructed by a group of volunteers, will go significantly deeper than the average well and has two reserve tanks to hold additional water. Using green technologies, the water pump is generated by installed solar panels.

ETHIOPIA
A project started in 2011 by Salesians and International Voluntary Service for Development volunteers was responsible for digging five wells in the Gambella area of Ethiopia. The wells are operated by a hand pump and are between 50 and 60 meters deep, guaranteeing water to local villages that will benefit close to 1,200 people. To ensure that the wells last as long as possible, a village committee has been set up to oversee their management and maintenance.

INDIA
Safe drinking water is essential for child survival. In India, progress has been made with 84.5 percent of rural and 95 percent of urban populations having sustainable access to safe drinking water, according to the World Bank. At the Don Bosco Center for Learning in Kurla, a new training facility focuses on job training in developing technologies concerning water, ranging from plumbing and sanitation to developing efficient methods for utilization and analyzing existing systems for efficient transportation of water. The courses are designed to help youth, who had previously left school, enter the workforce.

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PHOTO: UNICEF

Sources:

Salesian Missions

Water.org

The post GLOBAL: Salesian Missions Focuses Efforts on Clean Water Initiatives first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Today, close to a quarter of Cambodians over the age of 15 are illiterate. Seasonal food shortages leave close to 75 percent of the population without the proper nutrition they need. With very little access to education, poor youth find it especially challenging to break the cycle of poverty.

Salesians have a long history of working with poor youth in Cambodia. Continuing this work, the Don Bosco Technical School in Kep Province celebrated the official opening of an expanded youth hostel and a brand new water tower.

Currently there are 192 students at Don Bosco Technical School taking courses in audiovisual production, web development, IT & English, office administration, art communication, agriculture, electrical work and hotel skills. In the evening, informal courses are offered to youth from nearby villages in English language skills, computers and the internet. Gender equality is important at the school where every educational section is required to include both male and female students.

The Don Rua Youth Hostel on the campus of the technical school, has been in operation for some time now and was originally sponsored by the Sioch Group and the Government of the Netherlands. It was created to welcome groups of youth from other provinces coming to enjoy the hillside landscape and sea views of Kep while attending special meetings or vacationing. The hostel’s original mission has been preserved while expanding to include a school restaurant and stage on the ground floor and an art communication facility and hostel on the first floor. The school restaurant was possible thanks to the support of the European Patent Office and can hold more than 500 people.

The new Mary Help of Youth Water Tower is part of the Water System Project for the technical school and was made possible by donors through Don Bosco Mondo in Bonn, Germany. Its construction will guarantee water for this large educational community for years to come. Most people in the region utilize well water and this tower, constructed by a group of volunteers, will go significantly deeper than the average well and has two reserve tanks to hold additional water. Using green technologies, the water pump is generated by installed solar panels.

“Salesians are always looking to expand their services to meet the needs of local youth,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “It is more than just construction of new buildings, it is also program expansion to provide better and more diverse educational opportunities so youth can learn skills and trades to find employment and have hope for the future.”

The Salesians continue to make a difference in the lives of poor and marginalized youth throughout Cambodia. In partnership with the United Nations, they began providing technical vocational education to Cambodian refugees living in camps along the Thai-Cambodian border in the late 1980s. Later, Salesians partnered with the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Education to open seven vocational training centers. Currently, approximately 1,300 youth are enrolled in one and two year vocational training programs in Sihanoukville, Phnom Penh, Toul Kork, Teuk Thla, Battambang, Kep, and Poipet.

Sources

ANS – Cambodia – The official opening of the Don Rua Youth Hostel and the Mary Help of Youth Water Tower

World Bank – Cambodia

Don Bosco Cambodia

The post CAMBODIA: Expanded Youth Hostel and New Water Tower Bring Sustainability and Hope to Youth in Need first appeared on MissionNewswire.