(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries working at the Don Bosco Technical School in Dekemhare, a town roughly 25 miles southeast of the capital city of Asmara in Eritrea, have been able to buy two cows and food items thanks to donor funding from Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

Don Bosco Technical School provides education to 400 boys and girls. The school offers technical courses in automotive work, general metal, general mechanics, carpentry, building construction, woodwork or furniture making, electricity, electronics, and surveying. In addition, students take information technology and academic courses. Each trade course of study is two years long and at completion, students sit for a national exam. They also enter into military training for six months and are assigned a job by the government.

In addition to the technical school, Salesian missionaries have aspirant training and a youth center.

Overall, Salesian missionaries hope to have funding for additional cows and to enlarge the barn to increase the self-sustainability of Salesian initiatives.

“This is now three cows we have been able to buy with Salesian Missions funding and it’s greatly helping our program,” said Father Abba Petros Abraha, a Salesian missionary at the technical school. “The project of raising cows is so that we will have the income to sustain our community and our technical school. The vision is to be self-sufficient in the long run. We have launched some initiatives like the production of furniture for sale and planting vegetables to reach our vision. We are also selling milk to our neighbors, which has been going well.”

The East African nation of Eritrea has a population of approximately 5.5 million, of which 69 percent is estimated to live in poverty, according to the World Bank. The small country has one of the lowest GDP per capita in the world. While agriculture contributes only 13 percent to the country’s economy, it employs nearly 80 percent of the population. Only 12 percent of the total land is suitable for farming because of Eritrea’s rocky and mountainous terrain, and in part, due to the persistent drought which impacts much of the remaining landscape.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy of Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

Salesian Missions

World Bank – Eritrea

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Salesian missionaries have been working in Eritrea since 1995. Their mission is focused on education in order to provide youth with skills for employment to support themselves and their families.

Salesian missionaries have a very busy center in Decamerè with a guest house, an aspirantate, a public chapel, an oratory serving more than 600 youth, and Don Bosco Technical School, which currently educates close to 400 students.

The school offers technical courses in automotive, general metal, general mechanics, carpentry, building construction, woodwork or furniture making, electricity, electronics and survey. In addition, students take information technology and academic courses. Each trade course of study is two years long and at the completion, students sit for a national exam. They also enter into military training for six months and are assigned a job by the government. To date, Don Bosco Technical School has educated 2,384 students in various technical disciplines.

Salesian missionaries now need to install two reservoir tanks and a hydraulic system in the mission, otherwise it will become difficult to continue providing the programs and services the community has come to depend on for education and social support.

“Water is essential for life and Salesian missionaries have made it a priority to provide clean safe water for those its serves,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Improving water access brings a sense of dignity to communities, gives people access to safe drinking water and promotes proper hygiene. This reduces the number of waterborne illnesses that can affect those in our schools and programs, keeping them away from important study time.”

The East African nation of Eritrea has a population of approximately 3.5 million, of which 66 percent is estimated to live in poverty, according to the World Bank. The small country has one of the lowest GDP per capita in the world. While agriculture contributes only 13 percent to the country’s economy, it employs nearly 80 percent of the population. Only 12 percent of the total land is suitable for farming because of Eritrea’s rocky and mountainous terrain, and in part, due to the persistent drought which impacts much of the remaining landscape.

In addition, more than half of the population is under 15 years old, but the school system is inadequate. In order to have access to higher education, students are forced to follow the national service program, a sort of military/civil service initially designed for a year, but since 1998, rendered indefinitely. For all these reasons, around 4,000 people flee the country every month.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Eritrea – A little water to benefit a large, great mission

Salesian Missions

World Bank – Eritrea

The post ERITREA: Salesian missionaries launch project to bring clean water to Salesian center in Decamerè first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Don Bosco Technical School provides education in various trades to 400 boys and girls. The school offers technical courses in automotive, general metal, general mechanics, carpentry, building construction, woodwork or furniture making, electricity, electronics and survey. In addition, students take information technology and academic courses. Each trade course of study is two years long and at the completion, students sit for a national exam. They also enter into military training for six months and are assigned a job by the government.

In addition to the technical school, Salesian missionaries have aspirant training and a youth center. Overall Salesian missionaries hope to have funding for additional cows and to enlarge the barn in which they are kept.

“The cow that we have purchased is heavy for six months, and we will be able to milk it after three months,” explained Father Abba Petros Abraha, a Salesian missionary at the technical school. “We have three more cows already with calves. At the moment, we are extending the stall because it is too small.”

He added, “The project of raising cows is so that we will have the income to sustain our community and our technical school. The vision is to be self-sufficient in the long run. We have launched some initiatives like the production of furniture for sale and planting vegetables to reach our vision.”

The East African nation of Eritrea has a population of approximately 5.5 million, of which 69 percent is estimated to live in poverty, according to the World Bank. The small country has one of the lowest GDP per capita in the world. While agriculture contributes only 13 percent to the country’s economy, it employs nearly 80 percent of the population. Only 12 percent of the total land is suitable for farming because of Eritrea’s rocky and mountainous terrain, and in part, due to the persistent drought which impacts much of the remaining landscape.

Salesian Missions has this project in Eritrea and others around the globe that need funding on their website at https://salesianmissions.org/act-now/give/current-projects-funding-opportunities/.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

Salesian Missions

World Bank – Eritrea

The post ERITREA: Don Bosco Technical School in Dekemhare receives funding to buy a cow to help aid self-sustainability first appeared on MissionNewswire.

“The crisis in the Horn of Africa is a human disaster becoming a human catastrophe,” reports Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF, the U.N.’s children’s agency.

According to Lake, 1.4 million children are affected in Somalia alone, with an estimated 390,000 suffering from malnutrition. His agency estimates that nearly 140,000 children in south-central Somalia are currently suffering from “severe acute malnutrition” and are near death.

On July 20, the U.N. declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia, marking the first time since the early 90s that the U.N. has declared famine in Somalia. Across the region, nearly 11 million people are at risk according to UNICEF.

Malnutrition rates in Somalia are currently the highest in the world, with peaks of 50 percent in southern areas, according to Mark Bowden, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia.

Aid agencies have struggled to reach the most desperate parts of Somalia, where Al-Shabab extremists maintain control and refuse access to essential humanitarian organizations, including the U.N. World Food Program. As a result, tens of thousands are fleeing to refugee camps in neighboring countries Ethiopia and Kenya.

The children and people of the Horn of Africa face not only a threat of death from starvation, but from diseases that spread easily in overcrowded refugee camps. Men, women and children travel hundreds of miles on foot to make it to refugee camps where, sadly, they face another deadly threat.

Water-borne diseases are also a “lethal threat to children in southern Somalia,” according to an Aug. 18 report from UNICEF, which urges that a rapid response is needed as cholera cases increase. The report cites that 75 percent of all cases of highly infectious acute watery diarrhea are among children under five.

According to UNICEF, many of the Horn of Africa’s rural and urban areas rely on shallow wells, which – unless they are protected or treated with chlorine – can become a perfect breeding ground for water-borne diseases.

Therefore, aid must not only focus on providing food, it must also include plans for access to ongoing clean water, says Brother Cesare Bullo, executive director of the Salesian Planning and Development Office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

His office has put together plans to “rehabilitate” shallow wells to make them safe as well as dig new wells.

“We have located four water points that need to be rehabilitated and strengthened through the purchase of new pumps and additional excavations to find more water,” says Br. Bullo. “The new wells will be built in four areas for local communities very much in need of water at the moment. The wells need to be capable of providing a sufficient quantity of water during the droughts.”

In order to complete these projects, and provide life-saving food aid and water distribution, the Salesians have coordinated an international fundraising initiative. Salesian Missions of New Rochelle, NY, has put out an urgent appeal to U.S. donors to help raise the project goal of $850,000 that this initial response will require. To make a donation, go to www.SalesianMissions.org.

UN Photo/Stuart Price

Sources:

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39086&Cr=Somali&Cr1=

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_59585.html

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_59241.html

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