ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Don Bosco 2000 in Italy is focused on welcoming migrants, helping in prisons and providing safe space in oratories, among other activities. One of the oratories supported is the Piazza Armerina Oratory, run by the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. The oratory operates year-round with youth able to access support with homework and recreational activities.

The oratory recently became involved in a Caritas project that put on a theatrical performance in the Enna Luigi Bodenza prison house. The play included 26 youth and inmates and was performed at the Enna’s Garibaldi Theater.

“Don Bosco’s example represents the guide for how we support and address the needs of the youngest and the neediest among our population,” said Cinzia Vella, director general of Don Bosco 2000. “It’s not just here in Italy we are helping youth but abroad too. For example, we have one special project in Veligara Pont, a village in the Tambacounda region of Senegal. We have created a new oratory there that is successful. The village chief told us that since we arrived the children are happier and they are playing the summer games and dances we taught them.”

Amara, a volunteer with Don Bosco 2000 in Senegal, said, “The oratory is a beautiful thing for us. We do so many things with the children including meetings, gatherings, training. We even hold French and Italian language courses. Every Saturday and Sunday, we have more than 50 children attending the oratory and are able to distribute snacks. Thanks to the availability of two local volunteer doctors, we also provide a dispensary for medical care that is open every day.”

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of the country. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

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ANS – Italy – From Sicily to Senegal, a bridge of education and solidarity in the name of Don Bosco

Don Bosco 2000

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

The post ITALY: Youth in Italy, Senegal benefit from activities first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesians for Social APS in Rome has been taking in refugees to provide them support in their new community. One of these refugees is Negin, a young Afghan woman who fled with her family in 2021. She now lives in Italy and has been welcomed by a supportive network including the Salesians. Negin was able to continue her studies on a refugee scholarship and has started a new life.

Negin remembers the morning in Kabul when her family knew they had to leave Afghanistan. She explained, “It was a day like any other. For weeks, we had all been asking ourselves if they were coming or not. But no one wanted to assume the worst, even though we cried after the conquest of Herat. Then, at 11 that morning in mid-August 2021, we saw the Taliban at home, at the university, in offices, on the streets. Everywhere.”

From that day, the then 19-year-old computer science student began a journey into the unknown. “The journey was long, first by bus to Herat, then by car to the border with Iran, and finally in the Iranian city of Qom, where we waited for the visa for Italy,” she said.

Her mother, Razia, had been expelled from her post as a journalist on Tanandon TV, while her father, Reza, an architect, had been fired by the Ministry of Infrastructure. She also has a brother, Moahmmad Eshan, and little sister, Mathab. They are all rebuilding their lives in Italy.

The family’s escape from Kabul was made possible thanks to their savings and an incredible, yet discreet, network of solidarity coordinated by Italian journalist Maria Grazia Mazzola and by Salesians for Social. Salesians for Social has successfully supported 70 Afghan citizens persecuted by the Taliban.

Negin has continued her studies, which she would not have been able to do in Afghanistan. She said, “Before leaving Kabul, I begged an employee of my university to give me the file with the exams I had done. And now, with that precious piece of paper, I am able to apply for scholarships that LUISS University reserves for refugees.”

This month she has an appointment for her first exam at the Faculty of Economics. Looking to her future, Negin added, “A university degree is the most important goal. But I also hope that my parents will find a job soon because one cannot live with dignity without it.”

When she thinks back to her last few months in Kabul, Negin’s smile cracks. “Of course, that wasn’t a normal life. But it was still my country, our home was there, our friends were there. Then almost everyone left, leaving a whole life behind them. Like us.”

Salesians for Social fights against educational poverty and inequality for poor youth and their families through educational and social programs in Italy. These programs are possible with the support of donors and volunteers and with the collaboration of local businesses and institutions.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

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ANS – Italy – From Kabul to Rome, a one-way journey: Negin’s future is a university degree

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

The post ITALY: Afghan refugee starts her new life first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian Santa Chiara Oratory in the Ballarò neighborhood of Palermo, Italy, has launched a new tailoring and dressmaking workshop for young women and mothers. The training initiative, known locally as “LABMAG,” meets three times a week. The participants have the opportunity to socialize with one another and learn a skill to help them earn a living.

For decades, the Santa Chiara Oratory has been a place for meeting, sharing and hope for the many diverse cultures of people who live in the neighborhood. The women in the training are determined to create their own products that will support their families.

Marina Profeta, coordinator of the group, described her approach, “This tailoring workshop represents a time for women in the neighborhood to connect with each other while working and creating. We socialize and talk about issues that are close to our hearts — family, work and children. They do not feel judged and like to share their fears, expectations and desire to learn something for the future.”

Profeta wants to grow the workshop to include others. “We would like to approach migrant women who have different life experiences and are rich in values. They can give us an intercultural exchange that could make our reality a dressmaker’s workshop of the world.”

Father Domenico Luvarà, rector of the Salesians of St. Clare, said, “We consider it one of our priorities to pay attention to these women through our pastoral educational projects. Their presence here is vitally important. We have a goal to work more with young women and provide the support and encouragement they need to prepare for the future.”

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of the country. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

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ANS – Italy – Salesian oratory “Santa Chiara” in Palermo hosting tailoring workshop aimed at women and mothers

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The post ITALY: Women gain skills to earn living first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries in Macerata, Italy, have been helping refugees become acclimated in their new homes and have hope for a better life. Mustafa Alizada, age 24, has a wife and two children, including a 4-month-old baby. He was forced to flee Kabul, Afghanistan, when the Taliban seized power in August 2021. Because of his Hazara (Shiite) ethnicity, Alizada and his family, including his in-laws, were persecuted by the regime.

His family made the decision to leave quickly and left by car at night. They were able to make it safely to Pakistan and then to Italy.

“When the Taliban took power, we knew we were in danger and had to leave the country as soon as possible,” explained Alizada. “Through my sister-in-law and a journalist, both activists with Afghanistan Women’s Political Participation Network, a tweet was sent to Maria Grazia Mazzola, a RAI journalist, who helped us instantly. Our second child was due, and my wife gave birth in Kabul and then we fled to Pakistan. We traveled at night. Women had only their eyes uncovered and we were afraid. After 21 days we left for Italy, thanks to that tweet.”

Alizada and his family were granted refugee status a few weeks ago. He said, “I like Italy very much. In Macerata, I feel fine. I don’t want our children’s future to be like mine. Everything I had was wiped out. Destroyed in an instant. For them, I wish a peaceful life full of joy.”

An engineer specializing in construction, Alizada is doing his Italian civil service requirement with the Salesians and has started work as a laborer. He aspires to a higher qualification like the one he had in his country. He hopes for the equalization of qualifications and is already trying through an online university. He is also studying the Italian language.

“I thank the Salesians who have held our hands in the most difficult moments of our lives, for giving us a place to live and helping us with work. For us they are brothers and our friends and family,” added Alizada.

The Salesians supporting him feel the same way. Father Francesco Galante, rector of the Salesian center in Macerata, said, “When they arrived last year, just before Christmas, it was a sign of providence for us. Imagine being faced with a family with a baby just over a month old. This obliged us to provide concrete measures to the welcome them. There was a lot to be done with going to the doctor, the police station, then fingerprinting, and accompanying them to the supermarket that had halal meat, and so on.”

Fr. Galante noted it was a lesson for the Salesians as well. “Their arrival taught us not to suffocate the guests by pouring a thousand cares on them. You can see that they are not economic migrants. They were ripped from their land. One day they were living normally and the next day they were on the run and then welcomed in a country with a different culture. We realized that welcoming asks us to listen to those who arrive.”

Fr. Galante also noted that Alizada is hard-working and always willing to lend a hand. “If Mustafa saw us working and by chance, we didn’t ask him to help, he’d be offended. He has such a desire to do things, to make himself helpful. He has made friends with everyone here. And, in fact, in addition to the volunteers, Mustafa and family socialize with the university students living in the apartment next to theirs.”

In addition to helping refugees, Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

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ANS – Italy – Salesians open doors to Afghan refugees. Mustafa’s story

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

The post ITALY: Afghan refugee tells his story first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian Giostra Oratory in Messina, Italy, has announced that one of its students, Giovanni Napolitano, has been named one of the three best students in the first edition of the Samsung Customer Service School. This free advanced training school, promoted by Samsung Electronics Italy, Randstad Italy and Salesians for Social, was created to train service specialists. Salesians for Social developed this partnership with Samsung and other companies to create employment opportunities for disadvantaged youth.

In Italy, there is a current shortage of prospective employees with the right technical skills to fill service specialties. As a result, companies are having a difficult time filling positions. In July 2022, this impacted more than 40 percent of planned hires, about 10 percent higher than in July 2021.

The first class of the Samsung Customer Service School had 13 students, ages 18-22, from all over Italy. The students studied topics like thermodynamics of refrigeration, air conditioning, electrical engineering, fault diagnostics, data analysis, service marketing, behavioral techniques, entrepreneurship and customer service, among other topics.

“The first edition of the Customer Service School has come to an end. I appreciated the lively curiosity of the students and the healthy spirit of competition to achieve the result,” said Vito Fortunato, head of customer service at Samsung Electronics Italy. “I believe I can say that we have set up the school with rigor, leaving nothing to chance.”

Ettore Jovane, head of the air conditioning business at Samsung Electronics Italy, added, “The development of our products, designed by leveraging the most innovative technologies, must necessarily go hand-in-hand with the training and enhancement of human capital. Thanks to this joint project with Randstad and Salesians for Social we can offer advanced skills and train complete and up-to-date professional figures on new trends thanks to a unique path on the market.”

Osteljano Doka and Luigi D’Angelo are the other two award winners, both final-year students at the Luxembourg Institute in Milan. Each of the chosen students will be awarded a scholarship worth approximately 2,000 euros, which includes free enrollment in a course to obtain the F-GAS license, which is essential to work as service technicians on air conditioning systems. The students will also receive a tool kit for refrigeration/air conditioning technical interventions and additional in-depth training focused on management and entrepreneurship topics.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of the country. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

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ANS – Italy – Young man from Messina’s Giostra Salesian oratory among best in first edition of “Customer Service School”

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

The post ITALY: Salesian student honored at training school first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries have inaugurated a new soccer field at the Don Bosco Institute in Schio, Italy. The event was organized by the Salesian Youth Sports Club Concordia Football (soccer). The institute is celebrating its 120th anniversary. The new field boasts a synthetic turf made of recyclable plastic and LED lighting. It was made possible through private funders with the city administration.

A huge crowd gathered to celebrate the new field and included Roberto Baggio, a legendary Italian soccer player and winner of numerous national and international titles. He was joined by the city’s mayor, Valter Orsi, as well as Father Juan Carlos Pérez Godoy, councilor for the Mediterranean region, and Father Enrico Gaetan, rector of the Don Bosco Institute Schio.

Fr. Gaetan said, “Our goal is to offer young people a space that is increasingly within their reach for their formation and growth. The football field is the first step in a larger project. The school is now completed and the oratory will be finished next spring.”

The Salesian youth club has 90 players who attended the event and were able to ask Baggio about his career and what soccer meant to him.

“The true beauty is to feel joy for what you do. To feel the pleasure of playing because football is something wonderful. It is important to feel privileged, when you play sports, because many people cannot do it,” said Baggio at the event. “You cannot think that you can achieve your objectives if you do not also go through failures. Passion, perseverance, and determination make all the difference. You have to learn from sacrifices and failures.”

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, a memorial plaque was unveiled. The celebration continued with the inaugural game, the presentation of the teams in the arena, a toast and an informal moment for greetings with the guest of honor.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of the country. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

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ANS – Italy – Ballon d’Or Roberto Baggio inaugurates football field at Salesian oratory in Schio

Don Bosco Institute Schio

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

The post ITALY: School gains new soccer field first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesians for Social APS, a nonprofit organization, has been supporting youth in difficult circumstances for 25 years through foster homes and day care centers throughout Italy. It recently launched a new “Solidarity Shop” to generate financial support for projects that reduce forms of educational poverty, social exclusion, and marginalization of youth.

The shop has a selection of products designed to celebrate important milestones in life, such as birth, baptism, first communion, confirmation, graduation, marriage, birthdays and wedding anniversaries. New products, including parchments of different formats accompanied by decorated boxes for confetti, will arrive in the coming months.

The Solidarity Workshop was launched with a campaign dedicated to education. Salesians for Social APS also created its own “School Kit,” a gift designed for preschool children or those attending the first years of elementary school. The box has a bag and pencil case, crayons and markers, a package of glue, a notebook, and a specially designed coloring book.

A Salesian said, “Don Bosco repeatedly told us that ‘education is a thing of the heart,’ and it is not by chance that we thought of calling this new space ‘workshop,’ after those craft workshops in which our saint initiated his boys into a trade.”

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of the country. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

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ANS – Italy – “Laboratorio Solidale” of Salesians for Social APS is born, one more concrete gesture for young people in need

Salesians for Social Solidarity Workshop

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

The post ITALY: Shop raises funds for youth in need first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian Agricultural School of Lombriasco, located in Turin, Italy, will host the “Hortus: Agriculture for Life” expo Sept. 29 to Oct. 2. This is the second edition of an expo that brings together students from Salesian agricultural schools in the region to discuss topics of interest. It also develops an international network of young farmers who will contribute to the sustainable future of agriculture.

The expo will focus on innovation and sustainability in the sectors of floriculture, horticulture, arboriculture, ornamental plants, and mechanization following the themes from Pope Francis in his Laudato Si’ to raise awareness and increase action on the values ​​of integral ecology. One Salesian said, “The 2022 event will allow us to discuss and share highly relevant and topical issues such as innovation and sustainability concerning climate change and social agriculture.”

Dr. Daniel Ormeno, director of Net4Grow and collaborator of the Salesian Agrarian School of Lombriasco, will organize the event. There will be opportunities for cultural exchange, local development, and professional training in the agrarian, agro-industrial, and agribusiness fields.

Alumni of the Salesian Agricultural School of Lombriasco will add value as exhibitors, professionals and practitioners. All events and projects will be disseminated online by the Net4Grow network. The goals of Net4Grow are to preserve and develop agricultural vocational training and generate projects for shared local development. Net4Grow is also providing on-the-job training for students so they can take what they have learned in the classroom and put it into practice in the world.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of the country. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

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ANS – Italy – Expo AgriCultura Lombriasco – “Hortus: Agriculture for Life”: International Fair among Salesian Agricultural Schools in the world returns

Net4Grow

Salesian Agricultural School of Lombriasco

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

The post ITALY: Salesians focus on sustainable agriculture first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Afghanistan refugee families have been staying at the rectory of the Sacred Heart of Mary in Turin, Italy, since fleeing their country in search of shelter and safety. Despite the challenges and difficulty of fleeing, the families are already seeing signs of hope.

Children have been enjoying their time at the Don Bosco San Salvario oratory, engaging in games and outings while also learning the Italian language so they can start school. Parents and other adults have been included in volunteer activities to help with food distribution. They are also working to learn the language and achieve independence.

All of the older adults have good educational backgrounds and left jobs in Afghanistan. The procedures for equivalency of qualifications and obtaining permits and documentation are long and can sometimes be discouraging. Don Bosco San Salvario has been trying to help refugees sort through the process while offering emotional support during this time.

All of the oratory activities are facilitated by volunteers, who make an effort to support the refugees, spend time with them and help to meet their needs while working to make them feel at home.

Two of the families welcomed healthy babies, with Ali born in June and Maria Grazia born in July. On July 13, members of one of the families was reunited with their father, who had been stranded in Afghanistan for months due to paperwork problems.

“Around the globe, Salesian missionaries are assisting close to 400,000 refugees and internally displaced persons whose lives have been affected by war, persecution, famine, and natural disasters such as floods, droughts, and earthquakes,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Salesian programs, like those in Italy, provide refugees much-needed shelter, support, education and technical skills training, workforce development, health care, and nutrition.”

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 in Italy to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of the country. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

Salesian programs across the country provide support for families and help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

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ANS – Italy – In San Salvario, open doors 24/7

Don Bosco San Salvario

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

The post ITALY: Afghan refugee families see signs of hope first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesians for Social APS fights against educational poverty and inequality for poor youth and their families through educational and social programs in Italy. These programs are possible with the support of donors and volunteers and with the collaboration of local businesses and institutions.

In a statement to supporters, Father Francesco Preite, president of Salesians for Social APS, said, “Without your help, we could not do anything. Yet, together, what has been done is really a lot, especially for the lives of those who have been welcomed, accompanied, transformed by the Salesian presence in the country.”

Salesian centers in Macerata, Prato, Frascati and Turin have taken in Afghan refugees who fled war and prosecution. Salesians have provided support for those in Ukraine while also providing homes and support in Italy for Ukrainians who have fled. This is particularly true in Gorizia, on Italy’s northeastern border, where the Salesian community has seen an increase in the flow of minors crossing the border seeking safety and shelter. They have found support through Salesian missionaries and educators who are able and willing to support them.

Salesians for Social APS has also engaged in projects across the country. In Livorno, Salesians renovated rooms at a daycare center to improve the educational setting. In Santa Severa, on the Lazio coast, and Sassari in Sardegna, Salesians launched important maintenance and redevelopment projects that are still underway.

In Turin, initiatives have been launched to support working-class people in the district of San Salvario. In Foggia, in the Candelaro neighborhood, the Sacro Cuore oratory continues to offer educational support to youth who have been oppressed by organized crime.

In Corigliano d’Otranto, in the province of Lecce, the “Aloe for future” project was started by a local company. Youth from the Salesian community are involved in the organic cultivation of aloe, which is the first step of the project. They will also be involved in the extraction and processing phase. The goal is to create a 100 percent natural product from the community. Youth will work as a team to create an exclusive brand to sell the aloe to raise funding.

Fr. Preite concluded his statement by quoting the words Don Bosco used to address his benefactors, “Without your charity, I could have done little or nothing; with your charity, we have instead cooperated with the grace of God to dry many tears and save many souls.”

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

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ANS – Italy – The thousand and more activities carried out by Salesians for Social APS

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Projects fight educational poverty first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesians and students with the Vocational Training Center, located in Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy, have raised 13,250 euros by auctioning a restored Fiat Panda 4×4 passenger car. The money raised will help support the Salesian-run school Notre Dame de Clairvaux in Ivato, Madagascar.

Notre Dame de Clairvaux provides support to children and youth living in extreme poverty, many of whom lack one or both parents. Some are being raised by aunts and grandmothers. Salesian missionaries have been operating Notre Dame de Clairvaux since 1984, and today, provide free elementary and vocational training for 400 students. The organization relies on donations and other financial support to operate.

The car was fully restored and painted red by students from the auto mechanics and bodywork courses at the Vocational Training Center. The project was made possible with the support of Torino Heritage, an association that promotes automotive culture through the care of classic cars. The students were able to take what they learned in their courses and put it to work restoring the vintage Fiat Panda. The car’s interior was developed based on sketches created by the first-year students and viewed by Cavalier Giorgetto Giugiaro, the designer who invented the Panda in 1980.

A Salesian missionary involved in the project said, “This experience was an extraordinary opportunity for the sectors involved, and for the young people and formators who participated, who were able to put in a wide variety of skills and multiple hours of work.”

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

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ANS – Italy – “Panda 4 Mission” project concludes: an extraordinary educational experience and show of support

Notre Dame de Clairvaux Facebook

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

The post ITALY: Students raise money for poor youth in Madagascar first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesians for the Social has completed a four-year project that helped youth who were at risk of social inequalities and educational struggles. The “Giving more to those who had less” project covered 14 territories in seven Italian regions including Calabria, Campania, Puglia, Sicily, Lazio, Liguria and Marche. The project focused on youth who were at risk of leaving school early and suffered from poverty.

The goal of the project was to educate youth to increase their knowledge of their rights and duties, and improve their use of services and educational opportunities. Teachers also provided workshops for families. During the course of the project, more than 3,000 boys attended programs with the support of 1,200 teachers and 1,300 parents. Close to 460 organizations were also involved in the project.

“Social and educational support makes sense given that we do not all start with the same abilities, and the goal is to give everyone an opportunity to do something good in life,” said Dr. Andrea Sebastiani, director of Salesians for the Social.

Roberto Maurizio, scientific head of the project, stressed the importance of collaboration with schools and the importance of creating individual paths for youth so that they could focus on what they wanted for the future. He said, “Alone you cannot reduce educational poverty, but it is work that must be done in synergy. You cannot work for people, but with people, because addressing the poverty of children means addressing the poverty of families.”

The project had challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Salesian educators still worked with youth remotely during this time, engaging them in school activities. While work with youth continued, there was also a focus on social policies and family support measures that made it possible for youth to dream about the future.

“The process led to building the educational community, made up of oratories, associations, and schools, around the adolescent, which was the only viable road capable of breaking down inequalities,” said Father Francesco Preite, president of Salesians for the Social. “Strengthening daytime educational centers for minors and activating innovative processes to help youth are two objectives to be pursued in the immediate future.”

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of the country. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

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ANS – Italy – “Giving more to those who had less” project concluded; but Salesian commitment to counter educational poverty continues

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

The post ITALY: More than 3,000 youth served as project completed first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries with the Vocational Training Center, located in Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy, are auctioning a Fiat Panda 4×4 passenger car to raise money for the Salesian-run school Notre Dame de Clairvaux in Ivato, Madagascar, which provides free elementary and vocational training for 400 students. The car was fully restored and painted red by students from the auto mechanics and bodywork courses at the Vocational Training Center.

The car was presented during an event for the people involved in the project including artisans, entrepreneurs, and representatives of local institutions, as well as Father Leonardo Mancini, superior of the Piedmont and Aosta Valley Province, and Father Daniel Antúnez, president of the Salesian Mission Office in Turin.

“It is a beautiful expression of an economy of communion,” said Fr. Antúnez. “When vocational training comes into direct contact with initiatives promoted to care for the most disadvantaged, the result can only be astounding and at the same time extremely formative.”

The project was made possible with the support of Torino Heritage, an association that promotes automotive culture through the care of classic cars. The students were able to take what they learned in their courses and put it to work restoring the vintage Fiat Panda. The car’s interior was developed based on sketches created by the first-year students and viewed by Cavalier Giorgetto Giugiaro, the designer who invented the Panda in 1980.

The money raised will help a center that means so much to its community. Notre Dame de Clairvaux provides support to children and youth living in extreme poverty, many of whom lack one or both parents. Some are being raised by aunts and grandmothers.

Salesian missionaries have been operating Notre Dame de Clairvaux since 1984. They started with 90 youth in 1984 and their efforts grew to help more than 400. They receive support from donors and associations, including Belgium’s Via Don Bosco.

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

ANS – Italy – Economy of communion between Italy and Madagascar: “Panda 4 Mission” project

Notre Dame de Clairvaux Facebook

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian Pontifical University in Rome has launched an energy efficiency project to reduce energy consumption and utilize renewable sources throughout the campus. At the end of 2021, the university joined the “Laudato Si’ Initiative Platform” promoted by Pope Francis to raise awareness and increase action on the values ​​of integral ecology.

Thanks to Global Power Service, the university installed a system of photovoltaic panels for the production of clean energy. It will also replace the current six thermal power plants with new generation energy-efficient equipment. As a result, the university will save 230 tons of CO2 emissions per year, equivalent to planting 580 new trees. The university is also committed to reducing the use of plastic, dematerializing paper documents and installing electric vehicle recharging stations.

Father Andrea Bozzolo, rector magnificus of Salesian Pontifical University, said, “We want to work on the hearts and minds of our children, who are highly sensitive to environmental issues and eager to work, to generate skills, especially educational, so that a new relationship with creation is born, takes root and spreads.”

Fr. Bozzolo noted that change will be made through a series new of behaviors. He said, “It is not only the big projects that make the difference but the small daily gestures that each of us can put into practice. This is also why we have decided to reduce the consumption of plastic, to change the water dispensers in the bathrooms, to move toward energy saving, the recycling of food waste. Too often in our gestures, there is already an offense to the environment; we keep the water on or the light on when not needed, thinking we are not doing anything wrong! Awareness is lacking and what we are trying to do is to educate the younger generations to change their mentality and spirituality.”

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of the country. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

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ANS – Italy – Salesian Pontifical University in forefront of ecological conversion

Salesian Pontifical University

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian Circumscription of Central Italy and the banking institution Intesa Sanpaolo have signed an agreement in support of families with school-age children who attend Salesian schools and vocational training centers in Abruzzo, Lazio, Liguria, Marche, Sardinia, Tuscany and Umbria.

As part of an initiative of the environmental social governance sector of Intesa Sanpaolo, impact loans will provide families with a line of credit of 2,000 or 3,000 euros per year for a period ranging from one to five years.

The goal is to help families with financial sustainability while their children are in school. The loans will provide families with money to purchase products and services related to education (school fees, books, etc.), coverage of special educational needs (psychomotor skills, speech therapy), and other activities fostering personal growth (sports, summer camps, training experiences abroad).

Marco Morganti, head of the Intesa Sanpaolo Impact Department, said, “It is a source of great pride, but also an opportunity to invest in the first part of the school career when the potential for growth and learning is at its highest.”

The project is part of impact finance initiatives that provide credit to people who would be unlikely to receive traditional finance loans. The bank has been offering these impact loans for university students and working mothers, as well as for the purchase of computer devices for distance learning. As confirmed by recent research supported by Intesa Sanpaolo, most Italian families are convinced that spending on their children’s education is the best investment for the future.

“There are many families who choose the Don Bosco school as a place of formation and growth for their children. Many more would like to be part of this educational proposal but are discouraged by the payment of fees,” said Father Marco Aspettati, provincial delegate for Salesian schools. “That is why, as Salesian parish schools, we are very pleased to present this opportunity to the families of our children.”

Fr. Aspettati added, “Concrete support enables families to have the freedom of educational choice, which unfortunately in Italy represents a cost, unlike many other European countries. I’m convinced that many families, including those on low and medium incomes, can see in this financial product a valid help in investing in the education of their children, guaranteeing them quality education.”

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of Italy. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

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ANS – Italy – ICC Salesians and Intesa San Paolo Bank, supporting families for formation of young people

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Michele Rua Salesian Oratory in Turin, Italy, is celebrating its 100-year anniversary in service to local at-risk youth. Like the first oratory Salesians started in Italy, it began as a canopy and a courtyard, but grew with the neighborhood and the city, educating generations of youth.

The oratory began with the Mamma Margherita Bosco Recreation Center, which was built during World War I near the current site of the oratory. As need increased, a building was added in 1921 and dedicated to St. John Bosco’s successor Father Michele Rua.

Father Stefano Mondin, rector of the Salesian house that oversees the oratory, said, “One hundred years of history is a great achievement, especially if we think that we are in a culture of the provisional and of individualism. One hundred years of history means many people, many sacrifices, much dedication. There have been 100 years of Salesian history of dedication to poor young people, families, immigrants, and for all those whom Salesian spirituality has managed to intercept and also 100 years where the Lord did not fail to bless.”

The initiatives planned to celebrate the anniversary include a collection of 100 stories by students and graduates on their experiences, a photographic exhibition covering the oratory’s 100 years, and celebratory feasts in the community.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of the country. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

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

ANS – Italy – The first 100 years of the “Michele Rua” oratory in Turin

Michele Rua Salesian Oratory

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

The post ITALY: Oratory marks 100 years of serving at-risk youth first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, facilitated the “Salesian Solidarity with Italy: the Emergency Response to COVID-19” project from July 31, 2020, to Oct. 30, 2021. The project was made possible with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Government’s main development agency operating in more than 100 countries worldwide.

This project was one element of USAID’s $50 million commitment to Italy to help save lives and build resilience for the future. USAID’s work in Italy is one part of the U.S. Government’s response to the pandemic in Italy.

To implement the project, Salesian Missions worked with Salesian International Volunteering for Development (VIS) and two Salesian partners: CNOS-FAP, the National Salesian Center for Vocational Training and Ongoing Education, which is a network of technical and vocational institutions; and SCS-CNOS Federation, Salesians for Social Welfare

This project impacted 16 regions of Italy, mitigating the adverse social, health and educational consequences of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It reached 4,508 direct beneficiaries, 249 school classes and 30 youth centers. The project also had a particular emphasis on the needs of young women, who represented 49.6 percent of the total beneficiaries.

With a heavy focus on digital educational resources, the project provided 5,000 digital kits to schools that applied to a national drawing contest. An additional 1,450 digital kits were distributed to VIS partners. Furthermore, an online form is currently available on the VIS website where 65 digital kits have been downloaded since October 2021. The digital kits provided educational activities, stories, cartoons, and interactive and creative games to raise students’ awareness about global citizenship topics such as discrimination and inclusion, school dropouts and sustainable development.

In addition, due to distance learning during the pandemic, many students experienced performance declines, and some had to drop out due to a lack of steady internet connection and device issues. Responding to this need, 550 ICT kits (laptop, tablet and Wi-Fi kits) were distributed to 450 selected students attending technical courses in subjects like electricity, mechanics, and graphics at CNOS-FAP colleges and schools that are a part of SCS-CNOS Federation.

The project also disseminated 183 licenses to Salesian schools for technical software including software for graphics and communication, a multi-asset repository, e-simulators, and e-platform software. This software enabled the schools to enhance online coursework.

During the project period, 971 people also attended a variety of online learning including 10 web talks, four online courses and two video classes. Web talks explored challenges and opportunities related to digital relations, geopolitics, and cooperative working environment during the time of COVID-19. Some of the topics included “COVID-19, the unexpected guest. Vulnerability at the time of the coronavirus,” “Digital relations: new perspectives after the emergency,” “COVID-19 and sustainable development” and “Human rights after COVID.”

In addition to educational activities, the project focused on much needed food, shelter, and mental health and social support for poverty-stricken families and migrants in Catania, Sicily, through local partner Don Bosco 2000. A temporary reception center for migrants and refugees was also set up to provide shelter to 10 vulnerable migrants coming from Algeria, Niger, Egypt, Gambia and Senegal.

“We are grateful to the U.S. Government for supporting this critical project in Italy, which was hard hit by the virus and has a struggling economy made worse by the pandemic,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions. “Salesians joined together across the country with the support of partners to help address the ongoing needs brought about by the pandemic. This is an example of yet another collaborative project to assist those most in need through education, psycho-social support and delivering direct relief materials.”

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Photo courtesy of Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

CNOS-FAP

CNOS-FAP Facebook

ITALY: ‘Salesian Solidarity with Italy: the Emergency Response to COVID-19′ project made possible through USAID supports migrant youth

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

This project is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Salesian Missions and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian oratory Casa Valdocco in Torre Annunziata, Italy, held its annual soccer match on Dec. 21. The event brought together children from local communities and a representative of the National Association of Magistrates from the courthouse in Torre Annunziata. The event enabled youth to ask questions of their state representative and participate in a debate. It was an open dialogue for learning and sharing.

The event was coordinated by Father Antonio Carbone, president of the Small Steps, Big Dreams Association with support from Salesian educators. Small Steps, Big Dreams Association provides a range of educational programs and social development services for at-risk youth.

The organization manages homes for youth including two in Torre Annunziata, one in Caserta, one in Naples and three in Puglia. Father Luigi Cella, a Salesian in the region noted, “We take care of youth who are in situations that require greater educational attention.”

Small Steps, Big Dreams Association also launched the successful pizza maker educational course in 2020. The course is provided through Casa Valdocco, and students who attended the course received a pizza chef certificate, recognized by the Campania Region.

The first class was such a success that the program continued with other training sessions. The course for pizza makers is training youth ages 16-18 who are at risk of social marginalization. The goal is to help them gain a skill to find employment.

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of the country. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

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

ANS – Italy – A match to give “a kick to illegality”

Casa Valdocco Facebook

Small Steps, Big Dreams Facebook

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) On Boxing Day, celebrated on Dec. 26, the Basilica of San Giovanni Bosco in Rome becomes a canteen for those living in conditions of poverty. Salesians open their doors and share lunch with people who are poor and live in the area. This initiative is strengthened by past experiences that the La Goccia Association, which operates at the parish Caritas center of Don Bosco, has been offering for more than two decades.

Most recently, the parish welcomed more than 120 people including volunteers and others from nine local parishes. Father Roberto Colameo, parish priest, said, “The initiative becomes the sign of a collaboration that has spread throughout the territory to meet the needs related to the pandemic and that is played out in a larger portion of the territory, which goes beyond the borders of individual parishes in unity and strength.”

Maurizio Pisano, head of the parish Caritas and a member of La Goccia Association, explained,
“They are people we follow all year round. Either they have no fixed abode or they experience severe economic hardship. Everyone offers something of themselves. There are those who tell jokes, those who sing, and those who play. We are together and have a family day.”

All this would not be possible without the commitment and dedication of those who volunteer their time, according to Fr. Colameo. He added, “Thanks go to the volunteers, who did not hesitate to leave their family and their comforts to provide service and support in organizing this meal.”

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of Italy. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

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

ANS – Italy – At Christmas, the Don Bosco Basilica in Rome becomes a soup kitchen for the poor

Basilica of San Giovanni Bosco

Salesian Missions – Italy

World Bank – Italy

The post ITALY: Salesians open doors to share meal with community first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesians per il Sociale (Salesians for Social) has opened 1,172 positions for youth to give back through civil service volunteering. Salesians for Social coordinates the Universal Civil Service in Italy and other countries, which enables youth to have life-changing volunteer experiences. The deadline to fill these positions is Jan. 26.

Salesians have 1,081 open positions in Salesian oratories, schools and day care centers. There are additional openings in the digital education lab, which is through Salesians for Social and the Zenit Consortium in Tuscany.  There are also 63 places available for community service abroad in Brazil, Angola, Namibia, Ghana, Senegal, Albania and Spain. These opportunities are open to young people between the ages of 18-28 and who are Italians, from European Union countries or are non-EU citizens legally residing in Italy.

“We are excited that more than 1,000 young people will gain experience through universal community service. They will be able to promote the culture of volunteering and help vulnerable members of our community,” said Father Francesco Preite, president of Salesians for Social.

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between school and work.

Poverty rose sharply in 2020 to its highest level in 15 years as the COVID-19 crisis brought economic challenges for much of the country. Close to 5.6 million people or 9.4 percent of the population are living in absolute poverty unable to buy goods or services to achieve a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to the World Bank. This number includes 1.3 million minors.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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

ANS – Italy – Community Service with the Salesians for 2021: 1,172 places available for Italy and abroad

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy 

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, facilitates the “Salesian Solidarity with Italy: the Emergency Response to COVID-19” project. The project is made possible with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Government’s main development agency operating in more than 100 countries worldwide.

This project is one element of USAID’s $50 million commitment to Italy to help save lives and build resilience for the future. USAID’s work in Italy is one part of the U.S. Government’s response to the pandemic in Italy.

The project aimed to impact more than 24,000 people including students and other young people, teachers, families, and migrants and refugees. Salesian Missions is working with Salesian International Volunteering for Development (VIS) and local Salesian partners CNOS-FAP, the National Salesian Center for Vocational Training and Ongoing Education, and SCS-CNOS Federation, Salesians for Social Welfare to implement project activities.

In addition to educational activities aimed to strengthen remote learning, the project is focusing on much needed food, shelter, and mental health and social support for poverty-stricken families and migrants in Catania, Sicily, through local partner Don Bosco 2000. A temporary reception center for migrants and refugees was set up to provide shelter to 10 vulnerable migrants coming from Algeria, Niger, Egypt, Gambia and Senegal.

These vulnerable migrants have been involved in several orientation activities including participation in Italian classes, coaching, legal tutoring, and more. At the end of the orientation time, thanks to the collaboration with local authorities, the legal custody of five migrants passed to SIPROIMI (Italian Protection System for Holders of International Protection and for Foreign UASC). Through the integrated reception provided by SIPROIMI, these youth will have long-lasting access to legal protection with an application for international protection, access to the health system and psychological support, education, and integration activities.

During a recent site visit by Salesian Missions staff to Colonia Don Bosco, a beachside hostel and center of Don Bosco 2000, Omar, a migrant in the program, shared his story. He arrived in Italy in February 2018 and worked as a bartender before being laid off after COVID-19 shut down the local hospitality industry. Since being at Colonia Don Bosco, Omar has been able to continue his education. He is in his second year of high school and has worked as a bartender during the summer months.

“The project gave me so many chances,” said Omar. “I would like to thank these people for the project, helping us to apply for our future. One day I would like to study tourism. One day I’d like to go back to Gambia. This project gave me a second chance to restart. It gave me a second chance to achieve my dreams.”

The project has also set up a mobile help desk that has provided case management and referral services to impoverished people in Catania and Aidone. Some of the individuals were referred for nutritional services while others were sent to the reception center for migrants and refugees managed by Don Bosco 2000. Some were also referred to job placement services.

In addition, the project has provided food assistance via electronic payment cards to 380 families, representing at least 1,317 people, so that they could buy groceries in supermarkets and small shops. The distribution of a prepaid card aimed to strengthen responsible consumption and boost a home-grown production and distribution food chain. In collaboration with this initiative, Green VIS developed guidance documents and assisted local partners to ensure the optimal distribution, storage and waste management procedures.

Salesian Missions continues to facilitate this project with its implementation partners and works to mitigate the harmful secondary effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on vulnerable populations across Italy.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy of Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

CNOS-FAP

CNOS-FAP Facebook

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

This project is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Salesian Missions and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian Pontifical University in Rome recently launched an energy efficiency plan for the entire university campus. A presentation was held to inform members of the academic community on Nov. 22. During the presentation, the university officially joined the “Laudato Si’ Initiative Platform” promoted by Pope Francis to raise awareness and action on the values ​​of integral ecology.

Thanks to Global Power Service, the university will install a system of photovoltaic panels for the production of clean energy. It will also replace the current six thermal power plants with new generation energy-efficient equipment.

“With this new project, the Salesian Pontifical University will save the environment 230 tons of CO2 emissions per year, which corresponds to the planting of 580 new trees every year,” explained Father Renzo Barduca, campus administrator. “Alongside this project, the academic community is committed to reducing the use of plastic, dematerializing paper documentation and installing electric vehicle charging stations. All these projects need a fundamental step: the conversion of behavior. Each of us is called upon to realize the ecology of everyday life and to ‘infect’ the environment in which we live with a new mentality.”

Enrico Zoccatelli, engineer on the project and president of the Global Power Service, said, “The photovoltaic systems that will be installed are already designed in compatibility with the grid and will therefore allow the energy produced to be shared, avoiding waste or costly accumulations of energy. The project also provides for the adoption of an energy policy by the university aimed at Certification 50001 that will allow for the creation of a virtuous balance between man and nature through innovation and technology.”

Father Andrea Bozzolo, Salesian Pontifical University rector magnificus, explained that the Salesian Pontifical University, which is already part of the Network of Sustainable Universities, will make its own contribution to the care of creation with newer structural projects and educational proposals. By becoming a Laudato Si’ University, the goal is to inspire new lifestyles and foster a vision of creation as a gift from God.

At the presentation, Father Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam, coordinator of the Ecology and Creation Sector of the Vatican Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development and professor at the Faculty of Philosophy at the university, spoke about the Laudato Si’ Platform of Initiatives and the objectives for the next seven years. He also just returned from Glasgow, Scotland, where he participated in the COP26 event.

Fr. Kureethadam said, “The climate crisis is closely linked to poverty, famine and disease, which are the main cause of migration. We should not forget that change is possible, as demonstrated by the grassroots mobilizations of young people, minorities and communities around the world who are courageously committed to defending our planet.”

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

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Photo courtesy of Salesian Institutions of Higher Education

Salesian Institutions of Higher Education – UPS Becomes “Laudato Si University”, Energy Efficiency Project for the Entire University Campus Presented

Salesian Pontifical University

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Don Bosco Oratory in Schio, Italy, is celebrating 120 years of providing support and education for youth. The oratory brings together marginalized youth in the community for education, connection with peers and an opportunity to connect with supportive adults.

In 2022, the oratory is planning a major renovation to improve support to the city’s youth. The project will start with the soccer field and school and be followed by the theater and cinema.

“One hundred and twenty years is a long time,” said Father Enrico Gaetan, rector of Don Bosco Oratory. “I have been here for two years now, and the nice thing that happens to me when I go around town is hearing all the people who remember, for one thing or another, that they passed through the oratory.”

The multi-faceted Don Bosco Oratory offers sports and cultural activities, training and education, and fun social activities. Today, more than 800 young people are enrolled in sports associations such as basketball, volleyball and soccer, 350 children attend the school, and 80 participate in after-school activities. The oratory also offers volunteer opportunities, a cafe, a cinema, missionary groups and choirs.

Fr. Gaetan added, “The oratory was created to educate young people. Ever since the Salesians were called here there has always been educational and formative work. Now this action is done with two divisions in the oratory including associations and sport and with school and vocational training activity.”

The fundamental mission of Salesians and the oratory is to welcome children and older youth who are in need of support. Many are living on the sidelines of the community. Fr. Gaetan explained, “The oratory welcomes many young people who live on the street, in gangs or groups, but who know that here, with some rules, they can find a place. There are still many cases of deviance, where adult supervision is lacking or single parents who cannot do everything. The oratory is a home for them too, and the courtyard is the meeting point.”

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between school and work.

Italy has close to 1.2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – Salesian oratory in Schio – 120 years: From a bright past towards a future full of dreams & Projects

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Renovation to increase support for youth first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesians for Social officially launched “The accompaniment of unaccompanied minors in Europe: the experiences of social professionals” digital platform to provide information for frontline staff working with unaccompanied minors in Europe. The platform launched in English and French in October 2020, and now thanks to Salesians for Social, the Italian version is available. Other partners are working to create Greek and German versions.

The platform is the result of the work carried out within the project “Building knowledge from local practices: a solution for better care and support of unaccompanied minors in Europe” and is a collaborative effort of the seven European partners of Salesians for Social in Italy, Apprentices of Auteuil in France, Christian Youth Village Association in Germany, The Smile of a Child in Greece, the research partners the University of Ghent in Belgium, the University of Bedfordshire in England and the Observatory on Child Migration at the University of Poitiers in France.

The digital platform offers ongoing training and interaction with a digital community of experts in the field and with other partners operating in different countries. During the online course, training is focused on the reception for unaccompanied minors upon first arrival, the care of minors during their stay and providing support when they depart.

The training is flexible and participants can take the full training at once or through modules one at time. The examples presented in the training are provided in the form of interactive videos, audio and testimonials and are taken from real experiences in the field by professionals who work with youth. During the training, there is also the chance for self evaluation. On completion of the course, participants receive a certificate.

Elma Placido, a frontline worker from Salesians for Social who participated in creating the digital platform, noted that the creation of the platform provided an opportunity for discussion and debate between various educators of different countries who are all working in the same sector.

“This digital platform provides an opportunity for those first working with unaccompanied minors or those who need a refresher course to access education on the subject,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “These youth need assistance navigating their new country from where to access housing to finding employment or gaining an education. Frontline workers have many things to learn and understand to do this work and this tool presents an opportunity to learn from experts.”

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between school and work.

Italy has close to 1.2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – Unaccompanied foreign minors: “Salesians for Social APS” launches digital platform for formation and updating of operators

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Training promotes care for unaccompanied minors first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The ApiCultura project in Lombriasco, Italy, was established in October 2020 from a collaboration between Net4Grow, a network of Salesian agricultural schools, and the Salesian Agricultural School in Lombriasco. The aim of the project was to bring beekeeping back to the Salesian Agricultural School while safeguarding the species and educating on the importance of care for the environment.

After 10 months, the first training course finished and the first yield of honey was extracted. Students had the opportunity to complete their training by actively participating in a course for beekeeping operators, which was organized and implemented by the Agripiemonte Miele Producers Association in Turin. Students were able to put their classroom learning into practice when they were involved in the first honey extraction.

“It’s our duty to thank Hobby Farm in Biella and Riccardo Rubato who made 10 hives and a honey extraction laboratory available to us. This allowed students to put practical skills learned in the classroom into practice,” said Daniel Orminus, project manager of the Youth in Agriculture project, which is part of the Salesian Agricultural School beekeeping course.

Orminus added, “We also need to thank former student Marco Trinchero, who donated the bees, and Alessandro Appendino with Apicoltura Aperin who provided the technical step-by-step assistance for the care of bees.”

The project is now exploring the collection of data with the use of the ground air sensors supplied by X-Farm. The environmental data outside and inside the hives will be evaluated and compared with other biodiversity data. This data will help to drive different pollination and production phases. The information from this project will also be shared with Net4Grow so that other Salesian agricultural schools can learn from the experience and create training programs locally based on best practices.

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between school and work.

Italy has close to 1.2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – Salesian Agricultural School of Lombriasco and “Net4Grow”: first cycle of “ApiCultura” project completed

Net4Grow

Salesian Agricultural School in Lombriasco

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: First beekeeping students graduate first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Sacred Heart of Jesus Salesian House in Foggia, Italy, inaugurated Casa Gio, a new housing community for minors. The house was blessed during an inauguration ceremony by the Rector Major Father Ángel Fernández Artime. The event was attended by 40 youth and social workers from seven family homes in Puglia and Campania, which are managed by the Italian Salesian association, Piccoli Passi Grandi Sogni (Small Steps, Big Dreams).

Father Antonio Carbone, president of Small Steps, Big Dreams, said, “In each structure about eight minors from different backgrounds are welcomed. From 2007 to today, we have taken care of about 500 minors entrusted by the Territorial Education Services and Juvenile Justice Centers. We are happy to inaugurate a new community, even if as Salesians we would like every child to be able to experience the warmth of his own family in his home of origin.”

Ms. Patrizia, a social worker from the Salesian association who worked with youth through the pandemic, said, “What we’ve received, what we are donating, and what the Salesians in the oratory have taught us has become for us a vocation, a profession.”

Fr. Artime concluded the event speaking directly to youth. “We cannot fail to imagine the Salesian presence in the world without a Pinardi House like in Valdocco, to be close to young people who have no one and are without any possibilities. For each of you, the most difficult situation has passed. It’s time to write a new beautiful page in your life,” he said.

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between school and work.

Italy has close to 1.2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – Rector Major in Foggia to inaugurate new Housing Community for minors at risk “Casa Gio”

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: New housing community opens to welcome youth first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) People at risk of social exclusion because of reduced mobility will have a new source of transportation thanks to Salesian missionaries. The Don Bosco Social Works in Sesto San Giovanni, a commune in Milan, Italy, has received a specially equipped vehicle thanks to PMG Italia and the support of the municipality of Cinisello Balsamo. The project is known as “Guaranteed Mobility” and is made possible by collaboration with local businesses.

“This patronage means sharing an idea that is a virtuous example of collaboration, commitment and willingness to support the frailties that exist in society and that are increasing today due to the concomitance of various factors, also resulting from the pandemic,” said Mayor Giacomo Ghilardi and Riccardo Visentin, councilor for the Third Sector and Centrality of the Person.

Father Elio Cesari, director of Don Bosco Social Works, emphasized the importance of this gift to the organization and how much it will impact the local community. Of the 2,700 youth at the large Salesian complex, many are from the municipality of Cinisello Balsamo.

Don Bosco Social Works also has a vocational training center that is providing youth with a chance at employment. At the end of 2019, the vocational training center created a special program to begin teaching its students repair work on Yamaha two-wheeled vehicles, thanks to a collaboration with the Yamaha Technical School. Yamaha is providing tools and resources, such as laboratories, classrooms and technical equipment, to raise the professional, technological and operational skills of both its teachers and students.

As part of this partnership, during the fourth year of study, the best students are offered training internships at Yamaha and in the Yamaha Assistance Network to create and foster their experience in the workforce.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – Launch of “Future Traveling”, dedicated to fragile people and families

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: People with reduced mobility have new transportation source first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) More than 70 families in Sampierdarena, a major port and industrial area of Genoa in northwest Italy, have received a shopping card from the local Salesian parish for 35 euros a week for the next three months. This is a concrete measure to help many people facing financial hardship and food shortages because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding for this initiative comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through Salesians for Social and the Salesian International Volunteer Service for Development (VIS).

Those who received the financial help are originally from Senegal, Tunisia, Ecuador, Eastern Europe and Italy. They have lived in Sampierdarena for years. Many had stable jobs and were able to care for their families before the pandemic.

Wafa arrived in Italy from Tunisia 20 years ago with her husband. She has three children and her husband’s bricklaying job had allowed them to get by until recently. The pandemic has caused the demand for labor to decrease. Wafa said, “Taking care of five people without even one salary is impossible.”

Father Pierdante Giordano, the local Salesian parish priest, committed himself to this initiative with the help of volunteers from the parish Caritas group, the local VIS group and Salesians for Social. Families were evaluated by need and number of children as well as other economic factors.

“For now, we are supporting 180 families, with 72 families the most in need,” said Fr. Giordano. “Many of the families are already relying on the local food banks for their daily food. The shopping card will enable them to have additional support.”

Michela Vallarino, vice president of VIS, noted, “The initiative was born at the request of the Italian Salesians who wanted to support families during the pandemic. This collaborative project with the United States also provided protective devices in Sampierdarena and distributed 470 tablets to students so they could continue their studies with distance learning.”

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy of Don Bosco Genova

ANS – Italy – US shopping vouchers for poor families in Sampierdarena, thanks to Salesian commitment

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Shopping cards help prevent hunger for families first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Alin Cazacu is a graduate of the Salesian Vocational Training Center in Serravalle Scrivia, a commune in the province of Alessandria in the Italian region of Piedmont. Thanks to his determination and commitment to his education, he was able to fulfill his dream of starting his own business.

Cazacu, age 27, lives in Sardigliano and runs his own pizzeria with his business partner and best friend. The business has been in operation for three years. During COVID-19 restrictions, they could only provide pizza as take out, but the hope is to reopen the dining room to full capacity. The pizzeria has become a meeting place for people in the neighborhood.

Cazacu credits his education, and in particular, the internship he was provided, in helping him prepare for operating a business. He was able to take the skills he learned in the classroom and apply them in a real working environment. He took sales courses while at the Salesian Vocational Training Center and learned how to operate a business.

“A friend of mine recommended the school and course to me. He told me about a beautiful environment, useful for learning and becoming prepared for the workforce,” said Cazacu. The training course led him to an internship in a clothing store and then working as an employee in a pizzeria.

Cazacu added, “In the store, I put into practice the notions learned above all on how to approach customers, be polite and how to understand the needs of those in front of you. The course was very useful because they also taught me English—essential these days—and I was able to take the HACCP qualification for preparing and serving food and drinks, which came in handy later, saving time and money. Finally, I have perfected the theoretical knowledge through an internship.”

A staff member at the Salesian Vocational Training Center noted, “The course, which is completely free, includes 300 hours of an internship during students’ third year in the program after the classroom work is completed. The students learn sales techniques, cash management, organization of the point of sale, in addition to languages including English, Russian and business Chinese, which are all for dealing with customers who arrive in Serravalle.”

After a few years of working for a pizzeria, Cazacu and his friend decided to go on their own. Now he bakes and serves pizzas and can’t wait to go back to serving his customers in the dining room.

Young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population in Italy. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between work and school.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – Alin, from pupil to entrepreneur thanks to Salesian Vocational Training

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Graduate fulfills dream of owning a business first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Students from the Salesian School of Doing Vocational Training Center, part of Don Bosco Napoli located in Naples, Italy, sorted food aid packages that the Italian Farmers’ Association donated to Neapolitan families facing financial difficulty on Easter.

Each package contained more than 50 kilogram of local agricultural products. The initiative is part of the support provided by the Italian agri-food chain in support of those living in the most vulnerable territories.

“Providing nutritional support is important for families in need, particularly as many are still impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “This also provided an opportunity for Salesian students to give back to their communities. Volunteering and learning new skills are important as our students progress toward the workforce.”

The Salesian School of Doing started in 2019 with 120 students who left conventional education and were in need of learning skills for employment. The school offers a practical hands-on approach to education. Salesian missionaries have built partnerships with national and international companies to offer students a chance to put their skills to work in a real-world environment.

The school offers more than 1,200 square meters of space where courses in motor vehicle repair and operation of logistics systems and services take place. The three-year training courses offer more than 1,000 hours of learning each year, more than half of which is reserved for workshop activities.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population in Italy. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between work and school.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – Don Bosco Napoli distributes food parcels for Neapolitan families in difficulty

Don Bosco Napoli

Don Bosco Napoli Facebook

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Students volunteer to help families in need first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Forty students attending the Salesian oratory in the community of Santa Chiarra in Palermo, Italy, had access to school supplies, including tablets for online learning as well as pens, pencils and notebooks thanks to donor funding from Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. The funding also covered the costs for sanitizing gels, a machine to sanitize rooms and food for the families of the children at the oratory.

Most of the children attending the oratory are ages 6-15 and come from families that are low income. Most of their parents are unemployed or illegally employed, and some of the children’s fathers are in jail or under house arrest. Twelve families were supported through this initiative.

Giuseppe, who is 9, was one of the students supported. He lives in a small home with his parents who do odd jobs to make a meager income. When his family tested positive for COVID-19, he had to remain home in quarantine for 20 days and missed school. Salesian missionaries were able to provide him with a tablet so he could continue with his schoolwork during this time. He was able to connect with online lessons and not miss any days of school or fall behind his peers.

“Providing ongoing to support to families in need is especially important during this time,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions. “Through donor funding, students were able to continue with their lessons and have the supplies they needed to fully engage in their school work. The nutritional support also helped ensure that they were well fed and ready for their school lessons.”

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population in Italy. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between work and school.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy of Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Students keep up with online learning through tablets, support from donor funding first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Every afternoon children gather at DonBoScuola, a Salesian oratory in Macerata, Italy, to socialize with their peers through workshops and sports, as well as to receive extra educational support. During the COVID-19 pandemic, DonBoScuola continued on as long as it could safely. It dropped its numbers from 50 to 30 and increased social distancing. When restrictions increased, the Salesian oratory had to change how it provided services.

Connecting with older youth, ages 16-19, from the local Scouts group and university, Salesians launched a new remote version of DonBoScuola. Volunteers are taking time to connect digitally with younger children and help them with their homework, keep them company during recess, and organize games and workshops for them. This helped support children and youth who could no longer gather at the oratory and gave older youth a chance to give back to their community.

One volunteer said, “At a distance, the relationship between children is lost, but a very beautiful relationship is created between the volunteer and the child remotely, even more than the relationship that would be created in person.”

Other volunteers explained their experience. One noted, “I was afraid of not being able to help them as I wanted, but the two girls I helped were very good and I was very pleased to help them.” Another said, “DonBoScuola is a way to feel useful and to give myself in my small way, especially in this situation, in which we all feel powerless against something greater than us.”

For some volunteers this was the first time they worked remotely and one-on-one with a child. A volunteer described the experience, “When I was asked to do service at DonBoScuola, I was frankly afraid, because for the first time I would be alone with a child without the support of a group. But in just two days of service, I received the best gift possible when a 10-year-old boy revealed his dreams to me. I found a very intelligent and sensitive child behind a complicated situation.”

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – Service to children first of all and in all circumstances. Digital experience of “DonBoScuola”

DonBoScuola Facebook

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Remote program connects youth volunteers with children who need support first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries in Foggia, Italy, have launched a new “Family Community” initiative to provide a home structure where youth in need can live and access education and support. The inauguration of the home is scheduled for the end of May, and project activities will start over the summer. The work will be carried out thanks to the help of the General House of the Salesians, Don Bosco Mondo and donor support from people in the Puglia region of Italy.

The Candelaro district of Foggia has few opportunities for poor youth. Salesians operate a parish, oratory and the Sacred Heart Association, which just unveiled an artistic mural representing Don Bosco as a symbol of hope and redemption for the entire district.

“In a neighborhood lacking in educational opportunities, we will try to give more to those who have had less from life. Our future home will be a small village in solidarity where education, love and sharing will be the pillars that help support youth,” explained Father Antonio Carbone, director of the Salesian community in Torre Annunziata and president of the Salesian organization Small Steps, Big Dreams.

Small Steps, Big Dreams will be in charge of managing the new home. The organization already manages other similar homes including two in Torre Annunziata, one in Caserta, one in Naples and three in Puglia. Father Luigi Cella, another Salesian in the region noted, “We take care of youth who are in situations that require greater educational attention.”

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – Foggia Salesians relaunch mission for young people with “Family Community”

Small Steps, Big Dreams Facebook

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Initiative to provide home for youth in need first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) On Jan. 31, Salesian missionaries in Rome, Italy, released a new Salesian commercial on broadcast television with the goal to showcase their educational mission for poor youth in countries around the globe. The commercial is part of the “Limited Edition” campaign to highlight the uniqueness of the youth they serve. The final moments of the commercial reinforces this message with the slogan “young people are not all the same, they’re all unique.”

The commercial lasts 30 seconds and has been translated into the nine languages of ​Italian, Albanian, Arabic, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Slovak. The campaign is supported by the rector major, Father Ángel Fernández Artime and coordinated by the General Economer’s Office, led by the general economer, Bro. Jean Paul Muller.

In a recent interview with Famiglia Cristiana, Italy’s leading Catholic weekly magazine, Fr. Artime said, “Certainly our identity brand is young people, their education, the formation of children, adolescents. Everything else, oratory, schools, high schools or vocational training centers, shelters for immigrant children, parishes, youth centers, university institutions, are means aimed at one purpose: to prepare the young generations for life. Our educational method continues to be that of Don Bosco: the preventive system, which is much more than a pedagogy.”

The purpose of this campaign is to build the digital identity of the Salesian Congregation, creating effective and easily recognizable brand awareness on individual platforms. In the coming weeks, the campaign will directly involve youth on the social networks they love and use most, allowing them to be the spokespeople of the campaign, highlight their uniqueness, and open dialogue with social media users.

The commercial and the campaign also provide an opportunity for Salesians to reach out to youth and their families and be recognized as an educational agency that provides hope and support for a brighter future. The commercial is available on YouTube at the ANSChannel.

Working in more than 132 countries around the globe, Salesian missionaries are regarded as the single largest provider of vocational and technical training in the world. They offer more than 1,000 vocational, technical, professional and agricultural schools around the globe. This training gives youth the practical skills to prepare for employment while helping them to lead productive lives and become contributing adults in their communities. These programs go beyond educating. They also assist youth with making connections within industries and preparing them for the process of searching, finding and retaining employment.

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

ANS – RMG – “Young people are not all the same, they’re all unique”: worldwide commercial of the Salesians of Don Bosco “Limited Edition”

The post ITALY: New campaign highlights global education, youth served first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Lombriasco Beekeeping 2020 is a project launched by Net4Grow, coordinated by Daniel Ormen, and the Salesian Agricultural School in Lombriasco, Turin, Italy, directed by Father Marco Casanova. Net4Grow is a collaborative initiative facilitated by a network of representatives from the Salesian Agricultural School of Lombriasco, the Plaza Argentina Association, the Salesian agricultural schools worldwide, the Past Pupils of Don Bosco, and businesses and professionals in the agriculture sector.

Lombriasco Beekeeping 2020 offers a vocational training course for students and professionals to learn beekeeping and to safeguard the species and the environment. The course started on Nov. 17 at the Salesian Agricultural School in Lombriasco in collaboration with AgriPiemonte Miele. This course was offered free of charge and is reserved for fifth year students.

After the launch of the course, project collaborators have focused on setting up an experimental area called the “flowered meadow.” This, together with the positioning of the hives, will create a natural cultivation system that respects the earth and ecosystem, protection of species, and human health.

The final step will be to create a network between professionals in the sector, technicians and students of the Salesian agricultural schools across the globe. The network will facilitate technical training experiences on bees and the environment, as well as encourage school and work experience practice in several countries.

A project representative noted, “The launch of the Lombriasco Beekeeping 2020 project would not have been possible without the support of Hobby Farm of Biella, which supplied 10 hives and the materials for the workshop, and Bricco Gioino Agricultural, which provided bees and their technical expertise. We are also appreciative of past pupils from the Agricultural School and Alessandro Appendino who carefully follows the health of the bees.”

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – Lombriasco Beekeeping Project 2020

Net4Grow

Net4Grow Facebook

Salesians Lombriasco

Salesians Lombriasco Facebook

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Beekeeping initiative launches first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesians for Social, which coordinates the Universal Civil Service in Italy, will engage 1,250 youth between the ages of 18 and 29 in 2021 for volunteer positions in Italy and programs in Spain, France and Albania. This is the highest number of volunteers the Salesians will ever place for Universal Civil Service projects. In 2020, many of the placements were online and had to adapt to finding new ways to provide services that were originally intended in-person. This required flexibility within placements that will carry over to 2021.

For some projects, volunteer service will take place remotely while volunteers are at home. In other projects, a volunteer will work at the project’s original site or in another place where work can be done safely thanks to agreements with local governmental bodies and organizations.

Youth will be engaged in social welfare and educational activities that allow them to give back to local communities, gaining personal growth and maturation. Volunteers services include supporting the elderly, social assistance, educational support, digital literacy, creation of educational and cultural projects, food support, donation management and more.

“Volunteering in the coming months will help Italy to restart and not only prepare older youth volunteers for the future but give them an opportunity to help others prepare through education of younger youth and children,” explained Father Roberto Dal Molin, president of Salesians for Social.

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between school and work.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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

ANS – Italy – Civil Service with Salesians for Social Affairs: 1,250 places available for Italy and abroad

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Victims of human trafficking are finding hope for a better future through a hospitality course aimed at employment in the hotel and restaurant employment sectors thanks to a partnership between the Italian Red Cross and the National Salesian Center for Vocational Training and Ongoing Education (CNOS-FAP).

Siddhi, Cindy and Ritha are among the 22 women currently enrolled in the course at the Salesian Center in San Benigno Canavese, a commune on the outskirts of Turin, Italy.  The women in the program attend theoretical lessons and cooking, pastry and cleaning workshops and are then provided a 60-hour internship and job placement.

“Cindy takes care of whipping the egg whites,” says Daniela Gilardo, a course teacher. “Everyone in the course calls Cindy ‘Maestra’ because she not only creates a perfect product, but she does it by singing and dancing. Good humor spreads throughout the kitchen.”

Siddhi, who is 42 and from Nigeria, said, “I learned to cook many things including pasta, pizza and savory pies. I enjoy making bread at home, I don’t buy it anymore and my children love it.” Siddhi is always focused on the task at hand and is diligent in her work. She has thought of opening her own restaurant if the situation allows.

For most of the women, the course is a second chance in life. Ritha, a mother of a 6-year-old boy, is also from Nigeria. She arrived in Italy when she was still a girl. Ritha said, “It’s impossible to forget what I went through but engaging in this course is a distraction and at the same time it’s given me hope. I have an opportunity now for work at a cleaning company, a restaurant or a hotel. I would love to work in the industry after this course. Despite all the pain, life goes on and having people next to me who tell me that I can succeed gives me strength.” Ritha also wants to lead by example and show other women who have experienced the same pain to see that there are opportunities for a better future.

The courses, part of the European project “Pathways,” are providing support and education to migrants and victims of trafficking. For the last two years, the Italian Red Cross and seven other organizations from Italy, Greece and the United Kingdom have been engaged in these efforts.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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

ANS – Italy – Women’s redemption also starts from kitchen

CNOS-FAP

CNOS-FAP Facebook

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian community of Scandicci, just outside Florence, Italy, opened a semi-residential community for youth in memory of Salesian Blessed Artemide Zatti. The community was two years in the making and has opened its doors to four young people. The residence will be able to accommodate up to 18 young people a day, both males and females, aged 6 to 14, who are sent by the local social services.

“We’ve come a long way together with the whole educational team,” said Father Giorgio Mocci, director of the Salesian community in Scandicci. “The community has always supported us. We have several volunteers from the association La Melagrana Aps ready to make themselves available to these young people and support them.”

Yuna Kashi Zadeh, president of La Melagrana Aps, noted, “The satisfaction for having started this path is now great. ‘We’re here’ is the phrase that recurs most in the messages, in the calls and in the meetings that we have had in recent days. It means we are here and staying to embrace, meet, smile, cry, talk and to listen.”

While many programs in Italy have closed during the pandemic and others have limited the work they are doing, the Salesians have remained and continue to grow and expand programs to meet the critical needs of poor and at-risk youth. All Salesian programs are adhering to COVID-19 safety measures including wearing masks, social distancing and sanitizing.

“For us, it is important to start this work especially for those facing the most difficulty. We Salesians are here in Scandicci as we are in the whole world to be signs and bearers of God’s love for young people,” added Fr. Mocci.

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between school and work.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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ANS – Italy – Sign of hope in Scandicci: semi-residential community for minors “Michele Magone”

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Casa Don Bosco Museum, located in Turin, Italy, remains open online in compliance with the rules imposed to counter COVID-19. Visitors from all over the world can visit the virtual museum through the website. The museum provides an exhibition of the origins of the Salesian founder St. John (Don) Bosco’s educational and spiritual life.

While the museum will continue to be developed over time, the virtual experience provides a digital presentation of the 4,000 square meters and 27 physical exhibition spaces currently available at Casa Don Bosco. Launching the virtual part of the museum has not been an easy task because the space was intended for an in-person experience of the saint who changed the lives of thousands of youth during his time and, thanks to his successors, millions of youth since then.

All the museums in Italy are currently closed, so a virtual component to Casa Don Bosco was necessary. Virtual visitors can enter the room where Don Bosco slept and worked, observe the architectural development di Valdocco, and admire the representations of artists portraying Don Bosco and his work with young people over the ages. The virtual museum also provides original photographs, Don Bosco’s clothes and small bits of Salesian history.

“Casa Don Bosco is the fulfilment of a mandate given to the rector major, Father Ángel Fernández Artime, by General Chapter XXVII in 2014,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “The museum is now a living memory of the life of our founder St. John Bosco. Being able to offer a virtual tour enables the museum to remain accessible during the lockdowns even if visitors can’t be there in person.”

The official inauguration of the physical space was held over three days in early October. There was a ceremony for dignitaries, including 12 ambassadors to the Holy See, Piedmontese political representatives and Turin’s mayor, who proudly noted that even in environments which are hostile to the church, Don Bosco is always well received and his message still opens doors. A grand opening to the public followed.

At the inauguration ceremonies, high school students from the Valdocco culinary school provided a reception in the courtyard. Most of the students are recent immigrants to Turin, and their expertise, pride and hard work were on full display and a reminder why Casa Don Bosco Museum exists—to keep alive Don Bosco’s dream of work for youth.

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(MissionNewswire) With support from the U.S. Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, has launched a new project: “Salesian Solidarity with Italy: the Emergency Response to COVID-19.”

This activity is one element of USAID’s $50 million commitment to Italy to help save lives and build resilience for the future. USAID’s work in Italy is one part of the U.S. Government response to the pandemic in Italy.

The “Salesian Solidarity with Italy: the Emergency Response to COVID-19” project gives students access to online tools and technology.

The project will impact over 24,000 people including students and other young people, teachers, families, and migrants and refugees. Salesian Missions is working with Salesian International Volunteering for Development (VIS) and local Salesian partners CNOS-FAP, the National Salesian Center for Vocational Training and Ongoing Education, and SCS-CNOS Federation, Salesians for Social Welfare.

The project will mitigate the harmful secondary effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on vulnerable populations across Italy.

Through the stay@ctive campaign, VIS will work with local Salesian centers to develop free online educational resources for families with children to provide parents and children with coping strategies during periods of self-isolation and quarantine.

Secondly, the project will help develop technical and vocational training for students who have experienced a lapse in education due to the pandemic. With an unpredictable timeline for a return to normalcy, these investments in career-focused training will help young people make up for any loss in education access. In partnership with CNOS-FAP, this effort will reach more than 25,000 students.

In addition, the project will provide the funding to acquire annual licenses for technical software, e-simulators and e-platforms aimed at delivering distance learning in vocational fields and at simulating practical work-based environments. One of the challenges with e-learning is the inability of lower income students to access online tools. Thanks to ongoing relationships with Apple and other companies, it is possible for CNOS-FAP to acquire educational devices for its students at competitive prices. In addition, 550 start-up technology kits will be donated to the most vulnerable and poor students.

Salesian Missions will also donate food baskets and personal protective equipment (PPE), including face masks, disposable overalls and gloves, and detergents to marginalized groups including refugees, migrants, impoverished families and the elderly. VIS will help deliver these services through its partnership with SCS-CNOS Federation. A psychological help desk service will also be established to provide people with emotional support as they struggle with the challenges of social distancing and other COVID-19 related personal obstacles.

“The United States is proud to support ‘Salesian Solidarity with Italy: the Emergency Response to COVID-19.’ This project will provide online educational training, as well as food, protective equipment, and psychological assistance to vulnerable populations across Italy. Coordinated action is essential to mitigating the long-term effects of COVID-19,” said U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, Callista L. Gingrich. She added, “Faith-based organizations such as Salesian Missions are reliable partners in providing care and support to those most in need during this pandemic.”

“We are grateful to the U.S. Government for supporting this critical project in Italy, which has been hard hit by the virus and has a struggling economy made worse by the pandemic,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions. “Salesian organizations have rallied together across Italy to help mitigate the challenges and worsening conditions of poverty for those they serve. This is an example of yet another collaborative project to assist those most in need through education, psycho-social support and delivering direct relief materials.”

USAID is the U.S. Government’s premiere development organization operating in more than 100 countries worldwide.

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This project is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Salesian Missions and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Students who attended the first “Pizzoratorio” project launched by the Italian Salesian association, Piccoli Passi Grandi Sogni (Small Steps, Big Dreams) in October 2019, have graduated. The project, which took place in Torre Annunziata, a city in Naples, Italy, provided vocational training at the local Salesian oratory Casa Valdocco for youth to earn a professional qualification as a pizza maker. The project received the support of the Salesians per il Sociale (Salesians for Social),  Don Bosco Mondo Foundation and the Banco di Napoli Foundation for Child Care.

Students who attended the course received a pizza chef certificate, recognized by the Campania Region. Given the success of the first graduating class, Salesians have introduced the continuation of the program with a second round of training. The workshop for pizza makers is training youth aged 16 to 18 years old who are at risk of social marginalization. The goal is to help them gain a skill to find employment.

Father Antonio Carbone, the Salesian in charge of the project, explained, “The project was born in an area where there are many difficulties and the prospects for work and commitment are also difficult. Our goal every day is to get young people off the street. We will save them from the streets thanks to a gastronomic laboratory that will teach them how to cook and bake pizzas. And thanks to this qualification, they will be able to find an honest job.”

For many youth in the area, the project was an alternative to the dangers on the streets. Saverio, a 16-year-old graduate said, “I would have liked the course to last longer, to learn more and more techniques and improve. I still don’t know if I’ll want to do this job when I grow up, but I’ll carefully preserve this certificate that I conquered with constancy and sacrifice.”

The first graduating class suffered a tragedy. Luigi, a 17-year-old student, was killed in a robbery attempt in the final weeks of the class. He was passionate about his work as a pizza maker. Fr. Carbone wrote in a Facebook post, “I remember him when with so much sacrifice he wanted to learn the profession of pizza chef, I remember him, when during the months of lockdown three days a week, together with other guys he prepared pizzas to take to disadvantaged families, I remember him crying because in those months he couldn’t see his family, I remember him on Sunday at Mass with downcast eyes when during the homily there was talk of the beautiful life to which Jesus calls us.”

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is as an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between school and work.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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ANS – Italy – Final event of “Hands in Dough” project

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian Oratorio San Rocco has been inaugurated in Sondrio, Italy, after 15 months of work to rebuild the structure. The project was made possible thanks to funding from the Cariplo Foundation and a fundraiser. Established more than 120 years ago, the oratory is managed by the Salesian community and parish in Sondrio.

Mons. Oscar Cantoni, bishop of Como, presided over the Eucharistic celebration in the courtyard of the Salesian Institute. Participants also went to the Piazza San Rocco for speeches from Father Giuliano Giacomazzi, superior of the Lombard-Emilian Province, Father Christian Bricola, and a representative of the Cariplo Foundation. After the ribbon-cutting ceremony in the hall, Msgr. Cantoni said the blessing prayer.

“Functioning side by side with Salesian schools, Salesian oratories (youth centers) offer a safe place for engaging youth in constructive activities during leisure time—such as sports, art and music,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Youth are able to connect with supportive adults, access workshops and extra tutoring, and socialize with their peers. Youth learn teamwork and social skills, which provide opportunities for growth and maturity.”

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is as an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between school and work.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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

ANS – Italy – New “Oratorio San Rocco” inaugurated in Sondrio

Salesian Missions – Italy

Salesian Oratorio San Rocco

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The collaboration between the Salesian Vocational Training School in Sesto San Giovanni, a commune in Milan, Italy, and Yamaha Motor Italia established during the 2019-20 school year has already brought about a positive impact. Although both institutions had to face challenges during lockdown, two graduates of the program have started work at official Yamaha dealers.

The program provides automotive training courses that meet the Yamaha standard. Students are then able to access internships for on-the-job training with Yamaha dealerships. After graduation, they are often offered advanced course work at Yamaha and employment at dealerships.

Two students, Michele Musolino and Marco Crippa, obtained a technical diploma from the Salesian Vocational Training School in June and subsequently received a job offer from Yamaha dealers.

Musolino said, “It was a great journey. I started this experience by taking a course suitable to Yamaha standards. Then towards the end of the school year, I did an internship at Yamaha Motor to gain on-the-job training. Later, I did an internship at Valli Moto in Lissone. After the exams, I took my CV to Roberto Valli who hired me! As a result of the training, I have found good and helpful people, and I’ll be able to do a job that I like.”

Michele Musolino and Marco Crippa each obtained a technical diploma from the Salesian Vocational Training School followed by a job offer from Yamaha dealers.

Crippa also noted his positive experience with the training course. He said, “I have an apprenticeship contract with a maximum duration of three years, with the aim of training as a motorcycle repair mechanic. It includes full-time work of a maximum of 40 hours per week and training courses regarding my specialization. This work experience at the Motortimes dealership in Saronno has already filled me with positive emotions. It may seem trivial, but working on Yamaha-branded bikes gives me an extra boost.”

The partnership with Yamaha is a flagship professional training program at the Salesian Vocational Training School. Director Francesco Cristinelli noted, “Youth have the opportunity to have access to cutting-edge automotive workshops and to work on the latest-generation of Yamaha-branded vehicles. Then the best, like Marco and Michele, have the opportunity to build their future inside first-rate dealerships.”

Andrea Colombi, Yamaha Motor country manager, added, “This collaboration has the value of giving our contribution to the territory and to society in terms of skills, to create new highly technical professionals who can immediately integrate into the world of work. In every field, skills make and will make more and more a difference. Soon, other students of the fourth class will be selected to undertake the same path, and we are confident that in a year we’ll be able to speak of new and exciting results.”

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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

ANS – Italy – Don Bosco Social Works of Sesto San Giovanni and Yamaha: from training to hiring

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Salesian Vocational Training School in Sesto San Giovanni

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Don Bosco Institute in Florence, Italy, is hosting a summer camp for children who are blind. The camp is organized by the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Tuscany with the support of the CR Firenze Foundation Summer Together, the Red Cross, and the Institute for Research, Training and Rehabilitation. The camp, which is in its fourth year, has 11 youth participating.

“This is an important moment of interaction with peers before school resumes,” said Elena Ferroni, project coordinator. “These kids suffered during the lockdown period because their relationships with their teachers is very important. They all have a great desire to go back to class with friends and are now delighted to have a week dedicated to the group and learning.”

The camp is being held with strict adherence to COVID-19 health and safety measures. As soon as the youth arrived at camp, each one was provided a backpack with twenty masks and sanitizing gel inside. Activities at the camp include computer science activities, theater workshops, cinema, and excursions to the adventure park in Pratolino and the Acqua Village in Cecina.

Antonio Quatraro, presidents of the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Tuscany, said, “Those with visual impairments are unfortunately used to doing without. COVID-19, unfortunately, affects each of us and in a certain sense calls everyone to order. This, paradoxically, could ‘open the eyes’ of even those who do not want to see. We are happy to have managed to offer such a beautiful opportunity to these young people who are giving their utmost in every activity even in this difficult year.”

Director of the CR Firenze Foundation, Gabriele Gori, noted, “We believe it’s very important to support an initiative like this, and we designed and launched the Summer Together call precisely to encourage these forms of aggregation and socialization. The Foundation cares very much for those living in a condition of disability and is always available whenever collaboration is requested to implement programs that aim to make them feel fully integrated into the community.”

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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ANS – Italy – First post-Covid summer campus for blind children at Don Bosco Institute in Florence

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UNICEF – Italy Poverty

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian oratory in Bova Marina, Italy, has joined the “Plant Your Tree” initiative, which was launched in the fall of 2019 by the Mondoverde Club, an environmental association. As part of the summer 2020 activities, close to 60 youth from the Salesian oratory planted saplings. Four teams of youth were created and each was responsible for planting one sapling.

This activity is one of many that Salesian organizations around the globe have participated in recently in a push for broader environmental awareness and engagement. In April 2018, Salesians in India launched the Don Bosco Green Alliance, an international collective of youth from Salesian institutions and organizations that contribute to global environmental action, thought and policy. In two years, Don Bosco Green Alliance gained 273 registered members from 56 countries. Membership is open to all Salesian institutions and organizations worldwide.

In June 2020, Don Bosco Green Alliance launched the “Rethink, Reconnect, Renew” campaign. The new campaign will be carried out through the ongoing “Laudato Sì” year. On May 18, Pope Francis inaugurated “Laudato Si” at the Vatican commemorating the fifth anniversary of the publication of his eco-encyclical with the same title. As part of these efforts, Don Bosco Green Alliance was invited to lead initiatives within the school sector. The goal is to rethink educational programs to create greater awareness of ecology and to think about concrete actions that promote ecological vocations for youth, teachers and education managers.

This new campaign invites all of the Alliance members to rethink their priorities, their choices and their lifestyles, especially during the pandemic. Rethinking and reconnecting should inspire people to renew their way of living and ensure a healthier and happier future.

All Alliance members are being encouraged to make pledges on how they will concretely live more eco-friendly lives. Alliance members are also being asked to hold activities and programs during the year to bring about concrete outcomes at institutional and individual levels. A series of monthly webinars on topics connected to the theme of the campaign has been planned. Special events will be organized during the year in which members of the alliance can participate collectively.

“The Don Bosco Green Alliance is an important part of our Salesian youth ministry today,” said Father Savio Silveira, the convener of the Alliance. “Young people feel very strongly about the environmental crisis since they understand the impact it has on their lives and their future. Accompanying young people as they seek solutions to environmental issues has to be an aspect of our youth ministry.”

Don Bosco Green Alliance is focused on combating pollution, reducing global warming and eliminating disposable plastics. In each of these areas, it aims to partner with ongoing global campaigns promoted by UN Environment or other international organizations.

Members of the Alliance have also undertaken such initiatives as environmental education to increase green areas and planting trees, the reduction of the use of non-degradable materials, promotion of organic agriculture and home gardens, preservation and conservation of water, and increasing the use of renewable energy sources.

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ANS – Italy – Salesian oratory of Bova Marina turns green

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ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Four 18-year-old students, two of whom attend Salesian schools in Milan, Italy, have started a project to help families have access to computers at home for distance learning. The website PC4U.tech was set up to handle both donations and requests for a computer.

The team is made up of Matteo Mainetti, a student from Leone XIII Institute, who deals with the project’s logistical aspect; Salesian students Emanuele Sacco, who works on the programming of the site, and Pietro Cappellini, who takes care of the graphics and design; and Jacopo Rangone, who is dedicated to the administrative part of the project and studies in England.

The idea first came to the students during the general lockdown period that was required when COVID-19 hit Italy. Many students could not follow their academic lessons remotely because they did not have a computer or a tablet at home. The four friends began to collect devices from those who donated them spontaneously.

Through the online platform, people have the opportunity to donate functioning devices or to request one, if needed. The initiative, which is free for all, is also aimed at companies that have obsolete devices that they can give away. Each device is collected at the donor’s home, reformatted by an expert in the sector, sanitized and loaded with a message from the donor to the recipient. Cappellini said, “In the end, we are not donating an instrument, but a door to knowledge.”

Sacco explained, “The numbers of those who are hungry for technology, even in Lombardy, remain high. More than 2,600 students, nearly 14 percent, do not have a computer, and have not been able to go to school in recent months.”

“A recent ISTAT survey says that 33.8 percent of Italian families do not have a computer or tablet at home, and 57 percent of the kids must share only one computer in the family,” added Sacco. “This problem goes beyond the need highlighted by COVID-19 and the lockdowns because schools increasingly are digital, and students will increasingly need technological supports to be able to study.”

The project has also received help from Microsoft, which is providing support for the activation of Microsoft Office A1, the edition dedicated to schools.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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

ANS – Italy – “PC4U”: a solidarity chain in Milan

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Four students collaborate to help provide computers to families for distance learning first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The work of Salesian missionaries with at-risk youth was recently highlighted on social media by the Fundamental Rights Agency, a European Union agency focused on human rights. The agency shared a post on Twitter and Facebook that asked, “What did the COVID-19 isolation mean for vulnerable youth?” Thanks to the participation of Don Bosco International with the Fundamental Rights Agency, the agency highlighted the work of Salesian Social Platforms of Spain and Salesians for Social APS in Italy.

The Salesian Social Platforms in Spain has 83 residential centers for youth that house close to 700 across these centers. During the period of isolation, the work of Salesian missionaries and staff changed considerably.

“The extension of hours of intervention brought more time to foster conversation. We have seen how some gave their best, and we were forced to leave our comfort zones to seek new resources. They made us change,” said José Carlos Rodríguez, coordinator of the Salesian residential project Casa Garelli Protección in Madrid.

Ignacio Vázquez, general manager of the Don Bosco Foundation, which is active in Andalusia, Extremadura and the Canary Islands, said, “The efforts and creativity of the educational teams were fundamental. Today more than ever it has been seen that Don Bosco is the home of boys and girls who do not have another home.”

The work of Salesians in Italy was also critical. Many minors who have no place else to go rely on the services provided by Salesians for Social, which kept residential services open and operating during the pandemic. While many projects were on hold because of coronavirus, youth remained in residential services. Salesian staff did everything they could to minimize the risks of the coronavirus.

At several Salesian centers across Italy, Salesians for Social bought sanitizer kits, masks and gloves, supplied tablets to the houses to foster distance learning, and purchased tools to allow young workers to continue their training and to produce masks to prevent infections.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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ANS – RMG – Salesian activities with minors at risk also appreciated by “Fundamental Rights Agency”

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Fundamental Rights Agency highlights the work of Salesians for at-risk youth during the COVID-19 lockdown first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesians for Social, which coordinates the Universal Civil Service in Italy and other countries, has reactivated 67 projects that had been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. About 80 percent of the total activities from the organization have resumed including re-engaging 753 volunteers in 198 project locations.

“We are satisfied with restarting some Universal Civil Service projects because we strongly believe in the educative values of this experience that acquire greater strength in a moment of social emergency like this,” said Father Roberto Dal Molin, president of Salesians for the Social. “Our young know the value of their activities and have made themselves available for the good of all, primarily for service to our country. We are sure that they will be of great help in the places where Universal Civil Service will start again with that energy and enthusiasm typical of young people.”

Among these volunteers are those who had chosen to carry out their civil service abroad. They had to return to Italy during the health emergency and will remain to carry out their volunteer service in their home country. In some instances, volunteer projects cannot be reestablished. These youth have suspended their service at the moment, but work is underway to reactivate the projects as soon as possible.

The activities that volunteers will carry out will change. For some projects, volunteer service will take place remotely while volunteers are at home.  In other projects, a volunteer will work at the project’s original site or in another place where work can be done safely thanks to agreements with local governmental bodies and organizations engaged in the fight against the health emergency.

Volunteers will engage in a range of services including supporting the elderly, social assistance, educational support, digital literacy, creation of educational and cultural projects, food support, donation management and more.

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between school and work.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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

ANS – Italy – Civil Service with Salesians, 67 projects restart: 753 volunteers return to community service

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Salesians for Social reactivating 67 Universal Civil Service projects that can be done remotely first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries with the Higher School of Specialization in Clinical Psychology at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome, Italy, have launched a free digital psychological counseling platform. The goal is to help youth cope with the psychological impact that could result from the long isolation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The project is called “You stay home … I’m with you.”

Competent professionals and psychologists enrolled in the second, third and fourth year of specialization in psychotherapy will provide a space in which people will be listened to proactively. Further, if there is a need, psychologists will offer additional resources on interventions for stress response syndromes in the case of anxiety and depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. The consultancy provides for three online meetings for analysis and evaluation, identification of self-regulation resources related to stress response syndromes, and follow-up.

“The project arises from the need of specializing professionals and psychologists to put themselves at the service of others and to provide a place for exchange and listening in which people can feel understood and access resources to self-regulate and undertake psychological accompaniment paths,” explained Professor Father Mario Oscar Llanos, dean of the faculty of educational sciences.

Fr. Llano added, “This initiative is important because it is the contribution of our University to mitigate the psychological impacts that this emergency situation may have, especially on families and children.”

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

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ANS – Italy – “You stay home … I’m with you.” UPS free online psychological counseling service

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Salesian Pontifical University launches online psychological support for children dealing with isolation first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries in Europe have launched the DB Wave educational project in response to a growing need for more skills training to help youth find and retain employment. In the long-term, the project is expected to impact close to 60,000 students and 7,000 vocational education teachers from the European Union, promoting quality of training and inclusion.

The initiative brings together seven national Salesian vocational training networks located in six countries including Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Hungary and France and will impact 250 centers in these countries.

As part of Erasmus+, the European Union’s program to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe, the DB Wave project began to take shape at the 8th meeting of European Projects, School and Vocational Training, organized by the Salesians in Nice, France, in November 2018. The project officially started in November 2019, and will run for two years, ending in October 2021. The first meeting DB Wave project meeting took place in Munich in November followed by another in Rome, in December, with a third in Brussels in 2020.

The development of a European network of vocational training centers began much earlier with coordination by the Salesian Youth Ministry Department, and recently, by Father Tarcizio Morais. Starting from a meeting in Rome in 2012, the network has continued to grow, not only in the number of participants and countries represented, but also in the number of projects among the Salesian partners.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

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ANS – RMG – “DB Wave” project: new impetus for Salesian Vocational Training in Europe

Salesian Missions – Italy

The post ITALY: Salesian missionaries launch DB Wave project to promote Salesian vocational training in Europe aiming to impact 60,000 students first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian “This is my home” program in Turin, Italy, recently launched new temporary shelter spaces for at-risk youth and foreign unaccompanied minors. The inauguration of the new spaces took place at the Salesian Youth Center in San Paolo. The inaugurated spaces, which were renovated sections of an already established building, include the Caritas premises and an apartment that will accommodate up to seven youth.

The new apartment was launched after the success of the first housing in the building was established for 12 unaccompanied foreign minors who were entrusted to the Salesians by the Office for Foreign Minors of the Municipality of Turin in October 2016.

The new apartment is part of the welcoming path established by the Salesian parish and youth center in San Paolo, which contributes many volunteers to the practical and educational management of the two communities and to the Caritas listening center for the growing needs of families in the neighborhood.

The project to renovate the building was made possible by a donor and is intended to provide housing for young university students or workers and Italian and foreign young adults who need temporary social housing on their path to independence.

“We consider it important that these youth in need have a safe shelter so they can focus on work and their studies as they acclimate to a new environment. The space also becomes an opportunity for learning and developing peer relationships among different nationalities,” said Father Alberto Lagostina, director of the program.

Salesian missionaries have been challenged by the number of migrants and other unaccompanied youth looking for shelter, support and work in cities across Italy. For unaccompanied foreign minors, Salesian missionaries launched 58 projects including first- and second-level reception centers, Italian language courses, job placement services, legal assistance and more. These projects have impacted 4,068 migrant youth.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

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ANS – Italy – A new residential shelter in Turin-San Paolo

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Salesian missionaries launch new apartment for temporary shelter that can accommodate up to 7 at-risk youth and foreign unaccompanied minors first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries in Italy are holding events to focus on their “Give more to those who have had less” initiative, which works with 3,000 youth. The goal of the initiative is to fight educational poverty by involving all members of the community. 

At the halfway point of the initiative, events and seminars are being organized in all local offices to present the local project, the activities carried out and the prospects for the final period. To date, 57 partners, including nonprofit organizations, local authorities and schools, 14 implementation sites, and more than 80 committed operators, are working together.  

The first public event took place in Trapani with the attendance of school staff, staff from the city’s social service and Father Giovanni D’Andrea, Provincial of the Salesians in Sicily. The meeting was coordinated by the local team and the national project manager, Andrea Sebastiani. It also featured the involvement of children, teachers and parents.  

A second level of the project was working as a network with the various educational agencies in the territory. Participatory courses were developed at each location to identify educational challenges and objectives of the various territories and age groups of youth.  

The third level of intervention concerned adolescents directly. “In the operational offices, training courses have been activated in high schools that have, as their aim, to work on self-esteem, motivation and aggregation through sports, creative and artistic and digital activities and support to studying,” said Roberto Maurizio, scientific manager of the project. 

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care. 

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent. 

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need. 

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ANS – Italy – “Give more to those who’ve had less”. Fight against educational poverty must involve entire community 

Salesian Missions – Italy 

UNICEF – Italy Poverty 

The post ITALY: Salesian missionaries involve entire community to fight educational poverty first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Don Bosco Institute in Genoa, Italy, joined the Don Bosco Green Alliance, an international Salesian network that contributes to global environmental action, thought and policy. Since October 2019, the Don Bosco Institute has made specific commitments to promote the mission of the alliance. These include reducing waste production and improving its separation and recycling; raising awareness among young people who attend schools and the oratory; and leaving the Salesian center with concrete and visible actions.

The Don Bosco Institute has already held three ecological days, on Oct. 12, Nov. 16 and Dec. 12, in which youth engaged in community projects. The first ecological day brought together 50 youth, most of whom are part of the local community of unaccompanied foreign minors along with several students who are taking vocational training courses.

The young volunteers received overalls, gloves, masks and cleaning tools from AMIU, the company that deals with the collection and management of waste in Genoa. AMIU partnered with the Salesian youth to provide materials used in the project and select the gardens near the train station as the first clean-up project.

Divided into two groups and coordinated by a supervisor, youth started their work with enthusiasm, discovering a lot of waste and becoming upset about the poor behavior of people who litter so much. They filled dozens of garbage bags full of trash.

On Nov. 16, nearly 60 youth came together to clean up the Castagna cemetery. The youth garnered the positive attention of those visiting the cemetery. A few days after the third clean-up activity in December, Mayor Marco Bucci and Deputy Mayor Stefano Balleari awarded all the boys and girls for their efforts. Additional ecological days are scheduled for 2020, the first of which was Jan. 18.

“The ecological days are something that we want to continue and that we would like to become a reference model,” said Father Maurizio Verlezza, director of the Don Bosco Institute. “We care about the city, but above all, we care about young people who can grow and bring with them wherever they will go this sensitivity and this respect for the city in which they live.”

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

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

ANS – Italy – Ecological Days of Don Bosco Genoa: service to city and young

Don Bosco Green Alliance

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: The Don Bosco Institute joins the Don Bosco Green Alliance and engages youth in community clean-up events first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries with CNOS-FAP, the National Salesian Center for Vocational Training and Ongoing Education, have entered into a partnership with Yamaha to provide skills training in the automotive and motorsports field at the Don Bosco Social Works Vocational Training Center in Sesto San Giovanni near Milan, Italy.

At the end of 2019, the Don Bosco Center created a special program to begin teaching its students repair work on Yamaha two-wheeled vehicles, thanks to a prestigious collaboration with the Yamaha Technical School. Yamaha will work to qualify Salesian education and its tools and instrumental resources, such as laboratories, classrooms and technical equipment, to raise the professional, technological and operational skills of both its teachers and students.

“The Don Bosco Social Works of Sesto is characterized by the extremely high level of preparation of its students and is one of the few to have a specialization dedicated to two-wheeled vehicles,” explained Father Elio Cesari, the Don Bosco Center’s director. “The collaboration with Yamaha creates the opportunity for our children to work with cutting-edge equipment and be able to have an educational experience thanks to the rapport, teamwork and sharing of our value systems.”

As part of this partnership, during the fourth year of study, the best students will be offered training internships at Yamaha and in the Yamaha Assistance Network to create and foster their experience in the workforce.

“We want to create professional technical figures trained with Yamaha standards and who able to answer to a rapidly changing market, thanks to creating a path where school and company work together,” said Andrea Colombi, a Yamaha manager for Italy.

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between work and school.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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

ANS – Italy – Yamaha and Salesians together to give young people more opportunities

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Salesian missionaries partner with Yamaha to provide technical education at the Don Bosco Social Works Vocational Training Center first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Starting mid-January, 1,157 young people will have an opportunity to give back through civil service volunteering. Salesians per il Sociale (Salesians for Social) coordinates the Universal Civil Service in Italy and other countries, which enables youth to have these life-changing volunteer experiences.

Currently, there are 90 projects that will host volunteers in Italy, Spain, France and Romania. In Rome, volunteers will spend time at Borgo Ragazzi Don Bosco, which is one of several Salesian vocational training centers in the country. The school provides youth with the skills they need to enter the workforce and find and retain stable employment. This ensures that they are able to escape conditions of poverty and live a productive life.

Volunteers traveling to Spain, France and Romania will spend their time in Salesian oratories, boarding schools, traditional schools and family homes. They will plan and execute activities around study support, education, creative arts, sports, language and music workshops. Two more projects will start in February in Angola, Ghana, Ethiopia and Palestine, with eight volunteers.

“Volunteering is a great way for youth to give back and help support others,” says Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Many youth also see volunteering as a way to gain valuable work experience that can be applied later in the workforce. They are able to apply some of the skills they have learned in the classroom to real-life situations. The opportunity to volunteer is invaluable for many.”

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between school and work.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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

ANS – Italy – With Salesians for Social 1,157 young people ready to experience Universal Civil Service

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: 1,157 youth engaging in volunteer projects through Salesians for Social around the world first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Siamo Umani (We are human) project is carried out by the Salesian Social Cooperative within the Sacred Heart Youth Center in Rome, located next to Termini Station and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart founded by Don Bosco himself. The project helps young refugees and Italians find job placements and was recently selected as an inclusion model at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva.

Siamo Umani was founded in 2014 by two young married couples, Cristina and Giuseppe and Francesco and Antonella, with the help of Salesian missionaries. Their goal was to connect young refugees seeking services at the Sacred Heart Youth Center to job placements and fulfill the needs of community residents like the elderly. The goal was to bridge a gap between those new to the country and residents who might be able to help refugees acclimate easier.

The project has been successful to date. Its initiatives have grown and diversified and now include assistance for those wishing to start their own small businesses by creating and selling gadgets and homemade crafts.

For example, Soheila from Iran and Amira from Somali have put their artistic talents to good use in the creation of bonbonniere and gadgets for events and anniversaries. Viviane, originally from the Ivory Coast, provides light assistance to the elderly in the center of Rome. Mirvat, a passionate photographer from Syria, curates a blog and aspires to become an influencer on social networks to transmit a message of integration to young people. Finally, Morteza, a young man who arrived in Italy from Afghanistan, is a video maker who is hired by various local groups.

“Projects like this are essential to help young refugees make their way in their new country of residence,” says Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Salesians know the local marketplace and are able to create job placement programs to help youth and those in need to connect through training and internships to highly employable job sectors as well as help them start their own businesses, which helps their families and communities.”

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between work and school.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – “We are Human”, a model of inclusion in courtyard of Rome’s Sacred Heart

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Siamo Umani project helping young refugees use their skills and talents to start small businesses first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian Net4Grow project was recently presented at the end of the Expo Lombriasco AgriCultura 2019, held in October. The collaborative project is facilitated by a network of representatives from the Salesian Agricultural School of Lombriasco, the Plaza Argentina Association, the Salesian agricultural schools worldwide, the Past Pupils of Don Bosco, and businesses and professionals in the agriculture sector.

The project is led by Father Marco Casanova, director of the Salesian Agricultural School of Lombriasco, and Daniel Ormeno, coordinator of the project from the Plaza Argentina Association. Others have joined the project including representatives from the Salesian International Volunteering for Development (VIS), ISIRES Institute of Turin, the Agricultural University of Turin and the Agrimana Studio, which is coordinating the staff of agricultural technicians, agronomists and veterinarians.

The goal of Net4Grow is to preserve and develop agricultural vocational training and generate projects for shared local development. Additional training for both teachers and students in agriculture, livestock, innovation in the agro-industry and agribusiness is being planned for current Salesian vocational and technical training centers. Net4Grow is also working to set up on-the-job training for students so they can take what they have learned in the classroom and put it into practice in the world.

The project benefits both students and the business community. Net4Grow is also launching a Network Academy dedicated to entrepreneurs, where businesses become partners in research through the Net4Grow LAB in order to launch projects with national or international partners. Businesses will also be able to take advantage of vocational training courses that are tailored specifically for the work they do. Lastly, the Network Academy will help entrepreneurs create new opportunities where they can offer their products, services, and search for partners and collaborators in Italy and abroad.

“Salesian projects like Net4Grow are so successful in part because they remain flexible and diversified to meet of the needs of their students and the businesses that collaborate on the project,” says Father Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Being an integral part of the communities in which they work, Salesian missionaries are aware of local needs first-hand and are then able to develop a project to directly address those needs.”

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – How NET4GROW project was established

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Salesian Net4Grow project provides agriculture training and business networking first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian Vocational Training Center in Valdocco, a quarter within the city of Turin, Italy, is providing education and workforce development programs so that disadvantaged youth have an opportunity to learn skills for employment.

The center teaches youth skills in agribusiness, electrical wiring, mechanics, graphic design, construction, food services, hospitality and more. In addition, Salesian missionaries have developed decades-long partnerships with companies in and around Turin that enable students to access professional apprenticeships and successfully find employment after graduation. Salesian educational centers also have a more holistic approach to education, which helps youth overcome their difficulties and develops each as a whole person.

Salesian Brother Marco Gallo, the acting director of the Salesians of Social Welfare (SCS/CNOS Federation) of Turin, said in a recent video. “Valdocco is as important today as in the times of Don Bosco.”

He continued, “Today, so many years later, Valdocco still means vocational training for cooks, electricians, graphic designers. It is, however, a solution, an alternative for these young people who need to work and maintain themselves.”

The video with Bro. Gallo is part of a video series created by ANS in collaboration with the IME Communication Team highlighting various Salesian centers and programs in Italy.

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between work and school.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – RMG – CG28: Valdocco Vocational Training Center as told by Director Marco Gallo

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: The Salesian Vocational Training Center in Valdocco provides education and workforce development programs to help youth gain skills for employment first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian Teresa Gerini Vocational Training Center in Rome, Italy, has launched an initiative to connect local companies and entrepreneurs to youth taking courses in order to build a better bridge between school and work. The first meeting was recently held to discuss how the Salesian center and local companies can work together more seamlessly and effectively for students seeking internships and graduates seeking employment.

The center was founded in 1952 in a working-class area of Rome and currently educates more than 700 students. It is the largest in Italy and offers coursework in the fields of mechanics, electro-mechanics, electronics, IT and educational robotics.

Surveys in Italy have recently shown that there is a high percentage of youth who are not in school and are not working. Many do not have the valid qualifications and diplomas essential for employment. The Salesian Teresa Gerini Vocational Training Center is working hard to help students gain more diverse internships and be better prepared for the workforce.

In order to do that, better relationships need to be built with local companies and entrepreneurs. It is also critical that the Salesian center is teaching relevant skills and courses of study that are desirable and needed in the local marketplace.

The first meeting between the Salesian center and local companies took place on Oct. 18. Fourth-year students studying electronics, IT and educational robotics participated. They organized the meeting and introduced, through multimedia presentations, their educational experiences implemented under their teacher’s guidance.

Several guests attending the first meeting requested that more events be held so students could showcase their work. Business leaders encouraged students to commit themselves to the further analysis, planning and development of their projects. They stressed that through the students’ commitment and determination they can change their destiny and that of society.

“Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them,” says Father Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between work and school. Meetings that take place between Salesian educational centers and local businesses help to ensure that students gain real-work experience through internships and make easier transitions into the workforce.”

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – First “School & Business Synergy” meeting

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Salesian Teresa Gerini Vocational Training Center in Rome holds collaboration meetings with local companies and entrepreneurs first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries in Torre Annunziata, a city in Naples, Italy, have launched two initiatives recently to help poor youth in need of education. The first is Casa Valdocco, a day center for youth aged 6-18 years who need a less traditional educational environment. The second initiative is a new workshop as part of the “Pizzoratorio” project launched earlier this year in May.

Casa Valdocco can accommodate 30 children who will be assisted by specialized educators throughout the day until the evening when the children return home. The typical day begins with sharing meals, then time for study with children grouped by educational levels, followed by workshops and sports, and later in the day psychological support. Family mediation is also provided. This program helps to ensure that youth have the extra support required for them to gain an education.

In May 2019, the Italian Salesian association, Piccoli Passi Grandi Sogni (Small Steps, Big Dreams), set up the new “Pizzoratorio” project to provide vocational training for youth to earn professional qualification as pizza makers. The project has already received the support of the Salesians per il Sociale (Salesians for Social) and of the Don Bosco Mondo Foundation.

The “Mani in Pasta” (hands in the dough) workshop will be held at the Salesian oratory where youth have access to a modern oven. This first workshop will train 30 youth aged 14-21 who live in the Salesian Mamma Matilde and Peppino Brancati houses. Later, the workshop will be expanded to provide education to the boys attending the oratory. The students in the course will obtain a qualification certificate recognized by the Campania region upon graduating.

“With the ‘Mani in Pasta’ pizza-maker workshop, we want to teach a trade to all those children welcomed in our family homes or in the oratory who have had less from life,” says Father Antonio Carbone, vice-president of the Salesians per il Sociale.

He adds, “We are in a territory where there are so many difficulties and the prospects for work and commitment are also difficult. Every day our goal is to take the young off the street. We will save them from clans, thanks to a gastronomic workshop that will teach them to cook and bake pizzas. And thanks to this qualification, they will be able to find an honest job.”

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – “Casa Valdocco” and “Pizzorotorio”: Salesians even more committed to needy youth of Torre Annunziata

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Salesian missionaries in Torre Annunziata launch new initiatives to ensure youth have access to education first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries with the Salesians of Social Welfare (SCS/CNOS Federation) have launched a new vocational training center known as the “School of Doing” in Naples, Italy. The inauguration of the first school year brought together local administrations and political figures as well as Salesian leadership.

Father Fabio Attard, general councilor for the Salesian Youth Ministry, said, “When a boy or girl lives in an environment where he feels welcomed, accompanied, promoted and made a protagonist, the present is called the future.”

The “School of Doing” is starting with 120 students who have left conventional education and are in need of a second chance at learning skills needed for employment. The school offers a practical hands-on approach to education. Salesian missionaries have built partnerships with national and international companies to offer students a chance to put their skills to work in a real-world environment.

The school offers more than 1,200 square meters of space where courses in motor vehicle repair operators and operators of logistics systems and services take place. The three-year training courses offer more than 1,000 hours of learning each year, more than half of which is reserved for workshop activities.

At the inaugural event, each course and teachers were introduced before a ribbon-cutting ceremony and blessing from the Superior of the Salesian Province of Southern Italy, Father Angelo Santorsola. After the opening events, students guided the visitors through simulations of lessons in the workshops.

The construction of the school was made possible by many supporters including the Campania Region, UNICREDIT Bank, With the Children Foundation, Alberto and Franca Riva Onlus Foundation, San Gennaro Community Foundation, ImparareFare, Cometa Formazione and the Il Millepiedi Social Cooperative Society.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

Young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population in Italy. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between work and school.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – When the present is called future: “The School of Doing” inaugurated

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Salesian missionaries launch new School of Doing Vocational Training Center for 120 youth in Naples first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ITALY

(MissionNewswire) The first international meeting of Salesian agricultural schools, titled Expo Lombriasco 2019, took place in the commune of Lombriasco in the city of Turin, Italy. The event featured an AgriCultura International Exhibition that fostered sharing, formation, Salesian spirituality and the development of common projects.

Eight Salesian schools attended including three from Argentina and one each from Ireland, Albania, France and Ghana. In total, there were 22 students accompanied by seven professors from these countries. In addition, teachers and students from the Lombriasco Institute and representatives of the Salesian-run International Volunteer Service for Development (VIS), who cooperate in agricultural projects in Albania and Ghana, also attended.

Each school delegation presented its own activities, illustrating an active project dedicated to the agricultural, agro-industrial or agribusiness sectors. The theme for these projects included innovation, sustainability and social agriculture. At the end of the expo, diplomas and scholarships were awarded to the best three projects. Taking first place was the Salesian Agriculture School from Sunyani, Ghana, for the cultivation of vegetables in innovative greenhouses.

The expo also featured forums, conferences and in-depth workshops including the cultivation of bamboo to fish, insects as feed and the new frontiers of agriculture. Collaboration between local businesses and the Salesian schools was also highlighted.

On the last day, the Net4Grow project, created by the Salesian School of Lombriasco, was presented. This project is a network of Salesian agricultural schools around the globe, past pupils, companies and professionals in the sector that aims to preserve and develop agricultural vocational training and generate shared local development projects. Given the success of the first international expo, Salesian missionaries are already planning the next for October 2020.

In Italy, young people who are unemployed and not in school or training programs represent 20 percent of the population. Vocational training is an educational path that serves as a highly effective bridge between work and school.

Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, has close to 2 million children living in poverty, according to UNICEF. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis. Unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

Salesian programs across Italy help youth who are unable to attend school and others who drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families. Salesian programs work to combat these challenges by providing shelter, nutrition, education and workforce development services for youth in need.

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Sources:

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

ANS – Italy – Youth agriculture, between present and future

Salesian Missions – Italy

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Salesian missionaries hold first international meeting and expo for Salesian agriculture schools around the globe first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Through interviews with the unaccompanied minors being cared for in Rome, the report also sheds light on the expectations of these youth have for making the trip to Italy. Most are unaware of the legal and bureaucratic obstacles in their path as they seek to find a job in a short time of their arrival and pay off the large debts incurred in getting to Italy. It is not uncommon for these youth to end up on the black market, often in child labor or committing petty crime. Moreover, being involved in any form of work, whether or not they are being exploited, makes it difficult for them to attend school. And the lack of education and inadequate knowledge of the Italian language add to the problems they face

“Youth who leave their homeland alone are faced with many dangers in their travels,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Not only are youth subject to dangerous traveling conditions, in which they are exploited and abused, but once arriving at their destination they find they are forced to live on the streets and face the same conditions that they left. Salesian programs are working to give youth a chance to access safety, shelter and education to start a better life.”

Arthur, a 17 year old boy, accessing the Salesian Open Arms Community, came to Italy alone from Ghana. The oldest of three children with a father who is blind, Arthur was involved in a robbery, which he did not commit. He was wanted by the local police in Ghana and decided to emigrate. During his journey, he was stopped several times at customs and often mistreated by men who asked for money. After many difficulties, Arthur succeeded in reaching Sebha in Libya where he was beaten with a burning stick that scarred his arm. Before leaving for Tripoli, he was locked in a room and was subjected to violence, which his family was forced to listen to over the phone and was told they must pay a ransom for his safety. Arthur’s uncle managed to send $1,000 and a few days later he was able to leave for Tripoli on a small boat with 120 people.

After days of travel, Arthur arrived at the first-aid center of Pozzallo in Italy and was later connected to the Salesian program. He is one of 12, all young men from Syria, Iraq, Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan, Egypt and countries in sub-Saharan Africa, that have found refuge with Salesian missionaries. In the program, they have access to safe shelter, food and clothing, are able to call their families and talk to a mediator. These young men are also accessing literacy, Italian language, and skills-training to help find stable employment.

To help stop the flow of unaccompanied minors to Italy, Salesian missionaries have also started a Stop Human Trafficking Campaign, which is working to raise awareness of the dangers of youth migration focused on those leaving countries in Africa in search of a better life in Europe. The campaign is an initiative promoted by the Salesian-run International Voluntary Service for Development and the Don Bosco Mission Association in Turin, Italy.

The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness of the dangers of human trafficking and to prevent youth from feeling like they need to leave places like Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and Ghana, where people are most at risk of human trafficking. The campaign is providing analysis and research on the real reasons for migration; informing potential migrants about the risks of the journey and the real chances of success; and giving individual guidance to those who want to leave. In addition, the campaign, in collaboration with Salesian missionaries in Africa, will raise funds to help with program development in targeted countries in Africa to address some of the reasons why youth are leaving their homeland.

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Sources:

PHOTO: ANS

ANS – Italy – Arthur, from Ghana to Italy, braving the sea

Caritas International

The post ITALY: Unaccompanied Child Refugees Recieve Shelter, Acceptance from Missionaries in Italy first appeared on MissionNewswire.

By providing analysis and research on the real reasons for migration, informing potential migrants about the risks of the journey and the real chances of success and giving individual guidance to those who want to leave, the campaign is working to deter young people from leaving countries where people are most at risk of human trafficking such as Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and Ghana. In collaboration with Salesian missionaries in Africa, the campaign will also raise funds to help with program development in targeted countries in Africa.

The campaign has already found success in Senegal after research there showed that nearly 40 percent of youth leaving the country are leaving in search of better educational opportunities. Funds raised through the campaign are helping to provide scholarships to students in Senegal so they are able to access educational opportunities within their own country.

Salesian missionaries developed the campaign to meet the needs of the migrant youth who enter their programs in Europe and in Africa. In 2014, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) produced A Global Report on Trafficking in Persons which offered the first global assessment of the scope of human trafficking and what is being done to combat it. Based on data gathered from 155 countries, the report shows that more than 1.2 million children worldwide are victims of child trafficking which accounts for just over 20 percent of all trafficking victims. In some parts of Africa, children make up the majority of trafficking victims and in parts of West Africa, children account for nearly 100 percent of trafficking victims.

The report also notes that close to 80 percent of human trafficking is for sexual exploitation with the victims being predominantly women and girls. A surprising finding from the report is that in nearly 30 percent of the countries assessed, women make up the largest portion of traffickers. The second most common form of human trafficking, accounting for 19 percent, is forced labor. Although, research notes that this may be underrepresented because forced labor is frequently harder to detect than trafficking for sexual exploitation.

“From awareness programs in communities to radio programs, the Stop Human Trafficking campaign is utilizing a number of different methods to reach its audience,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “The campaign is also using real stories of young people who have returned home after having been victims of human trafficking, which has been quite effective.”

Since the launch of the Don Bosco Child Protection Center in Ghana in 2014, Salesian missionaries have been providing residential services and educational programs to victims of child trafficking. As part of the campaign, the center is also providing information on the risks of illegal migration including interviews with children who survived their migrant journey and returned home, videos, radio programs and local newspaper stories in addition to sponsoring forums, films and debates in rural areas.

“This campaign has been successful in reaching thousands of youth and creating awareness of the many forms of fraud, trafficking and exploitation facing those who venture on such migrant voyages while at the same time giving information on the possibilities for development that exist in these countries,” adds Fr. Hyde.

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Sources:

Stop Human Trafficking Campaign

The post ITALY: Stop Human Trafficking Campaign is Helping to Prevent Exploitation and Abuse first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The new laboratory is the first of its kind and was made possible through a partnership with New Holland Agriculture, a leading global manufacturer of agricultural machinery. The Teresa Gerini Vocational Training Center is now able to offer a specialist training course for 20 students who have already completed a three-year certificate of professional qualification. Students enrolled in the course will spend half their time taking courses at the training center and half their time gaining experience at companies in the New Holland dealer network or within the CNH Industrial group. Graduates of the program will be highly skilled technicians who will be able to meet the demands of the labor market.

Having grown throughout its seven year history, the TechPro2 project is currently operating in 57 Salesian training centers around the globe with more than 9,300 students accessing more than 240,000 hours of training in eight different languages. TechPro2 aims to help train youth to enter the workforce while meeting the employment needs of the industry.

Both Fiat Chrysler and CNH Industrial require a specialized workforce to provide service in dealerships and authorized service companies. This project is a win-win for both the companies and the students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are able to access technical training and gain the skills necessary to find and retain long-term livable wage employment.

“Salesian missionaries know how important it is to provide poor and disadvantaged youth access to education and employment training both for the individual student’s professional development and for the economy,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Students graduating from the TechPro2 training program are prepared to enter a growing employment sector and many are successful in finding stable long-term work directly after graduation.”

In April 2015, the TechPro2 project developed a new website with innovative features and up-to-date functionality so that students and dealerships can more easily access information. At the end of 2013 in Italy alone, 885 students completed the course in institutions offering the project. More than 45 percent of the graduates found employment directly after graduation, a significant feat given the current state of Italy’s economy.

Europe’s third-largest economy, Italy has close to 2 million children live in poverty, according to UNICEF. With more than 25 percent of the country’s children living in poverty, Italy has the highest percentage of child poverty out of all 25 European countries. The poverty rate has risen in the wake of Europe’s economic crisis and unemployment is at its highest level since the late 1970s with the overall jobless rate at 12.5 percent and youth unemployment as high as 41 percent.

Some youth are unable to attend school and others drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support from or neglect by their families.

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Sources:

ANS – Italy – Opening of the first laboratory of Agricultural Machinery for the Professional Training of the young

TechPro2

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Salesian Vocational Center Develops New Agricultural Machinery Laboratory first appeared on MissionNewswire.

In 2014, European Union countries hosted a relatively small share of refugees. At the end of 2014, the world’s top refugee host was Turkey followed by Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Ethiopia and Jordan. Lebanon hosted by far the largest number of refugees by population. By the first six months of 2015, 137,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe by sea under profoundly difficult and unsafe conditions as compared to the 75,000 that arrived during the same time period last year. The numbers are expected to continue to rise throughout the rest of 2015.

Syrian refugees make up the single largest group followed by refugees from Eritrea and Afghanistan. High numbers of refugees from Somalia, Iraq and Sudan who are in need of international protection are also arriving in Europe. According to UNHCR, the majority of those arriving in Europe in the first six months of 2015 were men searching for a safe place to live and work before attempting to reunite later with their families. However, this total also included large numbers of women and children, including thousands of unaccompanied and separated children.

Often the lack of legal routes to safety leaves no choice for many men, women and children other than to turn to smugglers at enormous cost and danger to their lives. Before arriving in Europe, many have suffered high levels of abuse, exploitation and human rights violations.

In countries around the globe, Salesian missionaries are assisting close to 400,000 refugees and internally displaced persons whose lives have been affected by war, persecution, famine and natural disasters such as floods, droughts and earthquakes. Salesian programs provide refugees much needed education and technical skills training, workforce development, healthcare and nutrition.

Salesian missionaries are working across Europe helping to provide needed services for the new wave of refugees arriving in these countries.

ITALY

In Sicily, Salesian missionaries have revamped a reception center for children who come to Italy looking for a better life. The reception center provides the first emergency point of contact for unaccompanied migrant and refugee minors. By creating two new sections within the existing center, missionaries have been able to add an extra bedroom and bathroom as well as a new bathroom for staff. The center also includes a living room and balcony that serves as a communal area to encourage sharing and relaxation.

All the fittings and interior doors of the premises have been replaced and new furniture has been acquired including a television set, DVD player, computer, cookware and plates. Currently, the house can accommodate up to 12 youth. The center offers an immediate welcome and safe space and is prepared to offer accommodation for as long as necessary until youth find a suitable, more permanent solution. The new structure also offers educational initiatives including language skills training and legal assistance to help youth begin a new life in Italy.

In addition to the center in Sicily, the Salesians of the Special Circumscription of Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta are active in welcoming refugees to their new reception center at the Don Bosco Institute in Alessandria, a city in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. And in Turin, Italy, Salesian missionaries are working with the local government to actively plan a new center for refugees while assessing what assistance might be needed to help unaccompanied youth long-term.

GERMANY

The German Province of the Salesians of Don Bosco has been strengthening its commitment to young refugees. To meet the large and growing need in Germany in recent weeks, Salesian missionaries have been continually increasing the number of houses where they give assistance to youth in need.

In addition to new houses, missionaries are now offering temporary housing. Today, 11 Salesian programs across Germany are caring for 448 refugee youth and more accommodations are being prepared to accept additional refugees as the need increases. Most of the refugees are young males between 16 and 18 years of age who have come to Germany from African countries, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The boys are provided shelter in Salesian houses that can accommodate up to 12 people with four social workers available 24 hours a day.

SPAIN

In Madrid, Salesian missionaries are developing programs across the country in preparation for additional refugees seeking services. Missionaries are working with local governments and other social programs to respond to the refugee crisis.

Salesian missionaries who have previous experience working with young refugees and their families are helping to start additional Salesian programs that will address the needs of today’s refugee youth. Many of the new programs focus on meeting the immediate needs of newly-arrived refugees and go on to address the need for education and employment. Missionaries are also working with local schools to help assimilate children from refugee families into classrooms.

Salesian Sisters with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians are working with the local government and diocese in Madrid to determine the most appropriate course of action to respond to and assist refugees from Syria. Currently, the Salesian Sisters operate six socio-educational projects that offer services for children at risk of social exclusion (many of them immigrants) and a social work project that was created to provide education and workforce development services to help decrease youth unemployment and educational inequality for those in poverty, especially girls.

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ANS – Italy Reception Centre for unaccompanied minors

ANS – Germany Welcoming Refugees: Salesians of Don Bosco in Germany give increased aid

ANS – Spain Welcoming Refugees: the Salesians in Spain are ready

UNHCR – The sea route to Europe: The Mediterranean passage in the age of refugees

The post EUROPE: Salesian Missionaries Providing Shelter and Education to Refugees Arriving in Europe first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The event, with a theme of “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”, is expected to attract close to 20 million visitors. Salesian missionaries are highlighting projects and initiatives that focus on feeding the body, educating the person and cultivating the dream. The Salesian Sisters’ program ran the first week of September and focused on Salesian projects that support the development of women’s micro-entrepreneurship.

UN Women, the United Nation’s entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, recently published a report called, “Progress of Women in the World 2015-2016” which noted that globally three quarters of working age men 15 years old and older are in the labor force compared to half of working age women. Among those who are employed, women constitute nearly two thirds of contributing family workers who work in family businesses without any direct pay. Women continue to be denied equal pay for work of equal value and are less likely than men to receive a pension, which translates into large income inequalities throughout their lives. However, the income women could be earning is critical to their family’s survival.

The Salesian Sister’s Female Entrepreneurship program presents an overview of best practices for micro-entrepreneurship projects that result in better economic conditions for women, their families and communities. Micro-entrepreneurship provides women valuable tools to escape from welfare dependence, stimulate production activity and bring out creativity and ingenuity in addition to increasing hope, dignity and employment opportunities.

“Young women and girls face many disadvantages and barriers to accessing education and achieving financial independence despite their huge potential,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions. “It is very important for young women and girls to attend school and gain an education. Women that are empowered though education are more often able to achieve financial independence, marry at an older age and make better and healthier choices that affect not only themselves but their families and communities as well.”

At the expo, the Salesian Sisters highlighted projects from the past 10 years that include a wide range of businesses run by women including the raising of small livestock, growing vegetables and food production, weaving and alternative medicine. The businesses that have been created differ depending on culture and location. Since 2004, The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians have developed more than 400 micro-entrepreneurship projects that have helped more than 30,000 women.

One of the projects highlighted focused on young migrant women living in Cammarata, a community in the Province of Agrigento in the Italian region of Sicily, who were trained in the basics of local agriculture, in particular the cultivation of olives. The course enabled them to implement the skills and knowledge they learned to gain employment in a field that is available in their new home country.

Many of the projects included on the job training in cooperative work and self-financing. For many women, starting a small income-generating activity can ensure the improvement of living conditions for their entire family and the possibility of education for their children, in addition to the empowerment of the woman herself.

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Sources:

ANS – Italy – Casa Don Bosco – Expo 2015: the FMA for female entrepreneurship

Casa Don Bosco Expo 2015

UN Women – Report Progress of Women in the World 2015-2016

The post ITALY: Salesian Sisters Highlight Mico-Entrepreneurship Projects that Help Women Gain Skills and Employment first appeared on MissionNewswire.

In anticipation of the day, Pope Francis sent a letter on June 24 to Father Ángel Fernández Artime, the Salesian Rector Major, after the Pope’s visit to Turin, Italy. In the letter, Pope Francis praised the work of Don Bosco and the Salesian Family and highlighted Don Bosco’s call to service and his work with poor and disadvantaged youth. Pope Francis also praised Salesian efforts in establishing education and social development services that are open to all youth regardless of language, race, culture or religion.

As part of the letter, Pope Francis states, “A characteristic feature of Don Bosco’s pedagogy is loving kindness, which is to be understood as a love that is manifested and perceived, and reveals itself in caring, affection, understanding and involvement in the life of another person. In the experiential process of education, according to Don Bosco, it is not enough to love, but love needs to be expressed in gestures that are concrete and effective. Thanks to this loving kindness, so many children and adolescents in Salesian settings have experienced an intense and serene emotional growth, which has proved very valuable in the shaping of their personality and in their life’s journey.”

The work of Salesian missionaries was started in 1859 by Don Bosco, a young priest at the time, along with 18 young men who were once poor street children cared for by Don Bosco. Their goal was to bring hope to thousands of poor youth and instill in them confidence while training them in the skills needed for a better life. Despite the anti-religious age in which Don Bosco lived, he served thousands before his death. More than 125 years later, this legacy continues and impacts millions of children in need.

Don Bosco was born in the village of Becchi in northern Italy on August 16, 1815. From an early age, he was drawn to helping disadvantaged youth. He joined the seminary in 1835 and supported himself by working as a tailor, blacksmith, shoemaker, carpenter, violinist, acrobat and magician. His various talents would later help him to meet and inspire youth in need. As the founder of the Salesian order, he spent his ministry educating and helping improve the lives of disadvantaged children by setting up homes and schools for them within the city of Turin, Italy as well as in other parts of the world.

During the Industrial Revolution, Don Bosco saw many young boys migrating from villages to towns looking for better education and work opportunities only to end up sleeping on the streets facing exploitation and often being forced to beg for food and other basic needs. He began looking out for these young boys, meeting with employers to ask for better wages and treatment for them. Eventually, he founded a trade school to help young people develop skills and gain an education. He also introduced many to music and sports. Don Bosco died on January 31, 1888 and was canonized a saint in 1934.

Today, his work continues in primary, secondary, vocational, trade and professional schools around the globe. Through Salesian programs, poor youth and their families have access to education, workforce development, humanitarian relief, youth clubs, health services, feeding programs and more. Salesian missionaries focus on rebuilding lives and helping young people become self-sufficient by learning a trade that will help them gain long-term employment.

“Just like Don Bosco, Salesian missionaries work and live among the youth they serve,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Following his example, Salesian missionaries continue to provide innovative programs that are customized to meet the immediate needs of poor youth in the communities they serve. On Don Bosco’s bicentennial, we reflect back on the foundation of this great work as well as on how far we have come in providing youth hope for a brighter future.”

During many of the bicentennial celebrations of Don Bosco’s life and work, current and former Salesian students expressed their appreciation and gratitude for their education and the many additional services that have helped them break the cycle of poverty and access opportunities for a better life.

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Sources:

ANS – Italy – 16th August 1815 – 2015: Eucharist of the Bicentenary

National Catholic Register – Bosco Bicentennial: Street Party for Saint Draws 15,000 People

Salesian Missions – Letter from Pope Francis to the Salesians in Celebration of the Bicentennial of Don Bosco’s Birth

The post GLOBAL: Thousands of Salesian Missionaries and Youth around the Globe Celebrate Bicentennial of St. John (Don) Bosco’s Birth first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Residents of the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia are experiencing chronic food insecurity made worse by recurring periods of drought, low soil fertility and an unsustainable use of natural resources. Agriculture is the primary source of sustenance and survival for communities in this region and the onset of drought has negatively impacted all aspects of family life. In order to address this situation and provide access to clean, safe water, Don Bosco Missions in Turin, Italy is planning to implement a well project. Each well equipped with pump is expected to cost just over $11,000 U.S.

The project will utilize construction techniques compatible with cultural traditions, practices and customs of the region and use locally sourced materials. It will also establish village committees that will be responsible for the management of the wells and water-collection systems in addition to the training of community members in appropriate sanitation practices.

The new wells will provide water for agriculture and food production and access to safe drinking water in addition to improving sanitation. Women and children often bear the primary responsibility for water collection in the majority of households and globally, spend 140 million hours a day collecting water. Children in communities without access to local wells 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.

“From safe drinking water and healthy sanitation to agriculture, water is essential for life,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Salesian Missions has made building wells and other projects that supply fresh, clean water a top priority for every community in every country in which Salesian missionaries work.”

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world with more than 38 percent of its population living in poverty, according to Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative. Close to 85 percent 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.

The country has 4 million orphans which account for nearly 12 percent of all children and according to UNICEF, more than half a million of these were orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS crisis that has affected the country. Thousands more children run away each year seeking a better life on the streets.

Salesian missionaries have a long history of providing educational and support services to poor youth in Ethiopia. Missionaries operate six primary schools, three secondary schools and six vocational training centers in the country. At all these Salesian-run educational facilities, youth are able to gain an education while accessing support services including family sponsorship and school feeding programs. These supports reinforce the missionaries’ goal of keeping youth in school as long as possible.

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Sources:

ANS – Ethiopia – A comprehensive water project

UNICEF – Ethiopia

The post ETHIOPIA: Salesian Missionaries Start New Well Project to Provide Clean Water to Communities across Ethiopia first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The construction of the hostel was a challenge given the ongoing tension between two different ethnic groups, the Rabhas and Garos, who occupy the region. There were several interruptions during construction due to ethnic clashes. In addition, frequent rains and flooding and challenges obtaining construction materials and qualified workers hampered efforts. In spite of the challenges, the hostel was completed and will be open to students for the 2015-2016 school year.

“There are many poor youth who live in these local villages who are unable to read and write because they have been unable to attend school,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Youth struggle not because they don’t want to study but because the school is several miles away and they cannot walk that distance every day. The new hostel brings hope to the youth from these local villages.”

At the hostel, students will receive room and board as well as educational materials. Their basic needs including shelter, nutritious meals and continuing educational and social support will be provided. Salesian missionaries in the area operate primary and secondary schools as well as offer advanced technical and vocational education programs. Student who were once unable to attend school will be able to gain an education and the skills necessary to go on to lead productive lives.

“Without the proper education, poor youth are unable to learn the skills needed for later employment and the cycle of poverty will continue,” adds Fr. Hyde. “Youth who are not in school are also more at-risk for child labor, homelessness and victimization.”

Young people in India, especially those living in poverty, are faced with child abuse, neglect, exploitation and forced child labor at an alarming rate, according to UNICEF. India has the largest number of child laborers under the age of 14 in the world with many forced into dangerous occupations and living on the streets. In 2010, India passed a landmark law mandating that all children between the ages of 6 and 14 be in school, but according to UNICEF, millions of children remain in the workforce. Full implementation of the law was to go into effect in 2013, but child workers can still be found in almost every industry in India. The problem is enforcing the law, particularly in high poverty regions of the country.

With more than 400 million poor people, or one-third of the world’s poor, according to UNICEF, ensuring youth have access to education in order for them to find stable employment at the appropriate age and break the cycle of poverty, is a priority in the country. Although more than 53 million people escaped poverty between 2005 and 2010, most remain vulnerable to falling back below the poverty line.

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PHOTO: © UNICEF (Stock photo) Girl walking to school in India.

Sources:

ANS – India – A new hostel to enable indigenous children to attend school

UNICEF – India

The post INDIA: New Youth Hostel Allows Indigenous Youth to Attend School first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Recently, Schneider Electric donated an entire electric management system that will power Casa Don Bosco, a facility that will host Salesian participants and projects from May through October at the 2015 World Expo to be held in Milan, Italy. The pavilion will be an agile and multifunctional space able to host conferences, events, exhibitions and shows. The electric system that will be utilized for Casa Don Bosco is an interactive and intelligent system that allows energy consumption and saving to be monitored in real-time.

The Salesian Family which includes the Don Bosco Network and the International Volunteers for Development, is one of 13 civil society organizations participating in the World Expo Milano. The event, with a theme this year of “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”, is expected to attract close to 20 million visitors. Salesian missionaries will highlight projects and initiatives, many in collaboration with Schneider Electric, that focus on feeding the body, educating the person and cultivating the dream.

“Collaborative partnerships between Salesian missionaries and corporations are essential to help us meet our mission to provide education and social development programs to poor youth around the globe,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Salesian missionaries provide technical and professional training for future electricians in many Salesian schools. The Schneider Electric partnership allows us to have up-to-date training materials and equipment available for our students along with professional training support in our classrooms.”

Through the Schneider Electrical Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Schneider Electric, more than 10,000 students have received electrician training in Salesian programs in India, Latin America and Europe since 2009. In addition to providing education, Salesian training programs help students connect to internships that allow them to apply lessons learned in the classroom to real-life work environments. Successful gradates of the electrician programs are provided assistance with resumes, interviewing and finding and retaining stable livable wage employment.

“Salesian programs educate poor youth who would otherwise have few opportunities for education and employment,” adds Fr. Hyde. “Having access to professionals in the field gives our students an advantage not only in the classroom but in the workforce as well.”

Salesian missionaries are also actively engaged in building hospitals, schools and youth centers as well as other community infrastructure in more than 130 countries around the globe. Schneider Electric has assisted in the implementation of many of these projects by providing both the equipment and professional support.

In addition, a Schneider Electric project focused on managing energy helps Salesian missionaries increase energy efficiency in Salesian houses and program buildings. This allows for a utility cost savings that is reinvested back into Salesian programs.

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Sources:

ANS – RMG – Ten Years of Active Collaboration between Schneider Electric and Salesians

Milan’s World Expo 2015

Schneider Electrical Foundation

The post GLOBAL: Schneider Electric Partnership Has Provided Training to More than 10,000 Students and Supported Infrastructure Projects first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Peru has also been plagued by hunger and disaster. According to the World Bank, close to 25 percent of children in the country are chronically malnourished. Communities continue to rebuild after an 8.0 earthquake in August 2007 which killed more than 500 people in the central coastal cities of Chincha, Pisco and Ica and injured hundreds more. The quake destroyed close to 60,000 residential and commercial buildings, leveled hundreds of acres of farmland and left countless Peruvians without means of livelihood.

Salesians in Peru have provided life-saving support and education to poor youth and their families as well as helped with rebuilding efforts after the earthquake. Salesians focus the majority of their programs on education and workforce development, helping to ensure that young Peruvians have access to the education and technical skills training that will enable them to find and retain long-term stable employment.

Through the Don Bosco Woodcarvers Cooperative of Chacas, young men have the opportunity to become skilled craftsmen. Each year, the cooperative admits 25 new students from impoverished backgrounds who want to advance their education and learn the woodcarving trade. Some of the students have been orphaned and many others are living in farming communities on family farms with little land, few animals and limited opportunities.

“Every young person deserves a chance to have a better life,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “This program helps young men who have very limited future prospects for stable employment and provides them the education and skills necessary to escape conditions of poverty. They are then able to help their families and communities.”

The cooperative provides a free five-year residential education program, recognized by the government, which includes high school education and job training. In addition to traditional academic classes, the cooperative education teaches students to paint and work with glass, wood, metal and stone. In the third year of the program, each student chooses a specialty. Upon graduation, a tool chest of saws, hammers, chisels and other equipment is given to each graduate who then may choose to start his own business or become a member of the cooperative.

Currently, 650 woodcarvers in 10 different areas of the Andes belong to the cooperative. Some of the furniture created is donated to poor families in need in the area. Additional work is exported throughout South America, Italy and the United States. According to a recent Catholic News Service article, the young men in the cooperative are paid according to the number of pieces they finish per month. On average, the woodcarvers earn 1,200 soles (US$430) with more experienced and skilled graduates earning 2,000 soles. That amount, according to the article, is on par with what a teacher or a medical technician earns in the region.

The cooperative was started in the Peruvian Andes in 1979 by Italian Salesian Father Ugo De Censi and is part of Operatión Mato Grosso, an organization composed primarily of young Italians who volunteer time to help the very poor in Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia.

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Sources:

Catholic News Services – High in the Andes, Peruvian artisans create sacred art

Operación Mato Grosso

World Bank – Peru

The post PERU: Don Bosco Woodcarvers Cooperative Provides Education and Employment Opportunities for Poor Youth first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Some youth are unable to attend school and others drop out to work at the few jobs available to them. A growing number of children work as laborers on farms and others have turned to the sex trade to help support their families. Those in poverty often live without adequate shelter, hot water, regular meals and health care.

According to UNICEF, a growing number of youth are living away from their families in temporary shelters and within government and charity programs because of inadequate support and neglect by their families.

To raise awareness of the plight of children living without families, Salesians in Italy have organized a Help at Hand week running from May 5 to 11. Salesians working in parishes, youth centers, schools and vocational centers in six Salesian provinces have joined the initiative to raise awareness of the problems poor youth face.

“With Help at Hand week, the Salesians in Italy want to draw attention to a situation that affects a large number of young people,” says Father Claudio Belfiore, president of the National Center of Salesian Works. “We have been working for a long time to give a family to young people who are alone or abandoned.”

“Normally when we hear about need and poverty we think of countries in the developing world. This is still true, but our experience and the statistics reveal dramatic and urgent situations on our doorstep,” adds Fr. Belfiore.

The Salesians plan to raise awareness by distributing brochures, posters and flyers that provide educational information about the plight of poor children in the country while highlighting the programs and services that are available. In addition, the campaign is hoping to raise funds to directly support Salesian programs working to help youth without families.

Salesian schools, youth centers and vocational training programs are educating poor youth and providing important social and vocational skills. The goal being to provide youth with job skills that will bring them livable wage employment and the opportunity to give back to their communities.

“In the current situation of widespread crisis there is a danger that we pay attention and offer support only to those who manage to make their voice heard. The Salesians in Italy have decided to promote this initiative as a sign of hope for young people in need, but also as a sign of maturity for all of us, because it puts us in a position to take care of the younger generation,” concludes Fr. Belfiore.

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Sources

ANS – Italy – Help at Hand. “Give a family to someone who does not have one.”

UNICEF – Italy Poverty

The post ITALY: Salesian Campaign Hopes to Raise Awareness of Poor Youth in Italy first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Close to 823 million people do not have enough to eat and nearly half of them are children, according to Stop Hunger Now, an international relief organization that provides food and life‐saving aid to the world’s most vulnerable. Of those who go hungry daily, 98 percent reside in developing countries where there is not only a shortage of food, but major challenges for aid to reach its destination. Working with Salesian Missions to ensure delivery and distribution, more than 10 countries have already received shipments of food this year, and will receive several more in the coming months.

Stop Hunger Now provides more than just food aid. It also provides significant in-kind aid (such as food, medicines and other supplies) that support education and vocational training programs which are proven to have long-term sustainability—like those run by Salesian Missions. These programs promote education, encourage children to attend school, improve the health and nutrition of students, address gender inequalities, combat child labor, spur economic growth and create a platform to address global issues.

“Salesian programs are a good match for our mission to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid while creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources,” says Chessney Barrick, director of communications and cause marketing at Stop Hunger Now.

The Stop Hunger Now meal packaging program was created to give dedicated individuals the opportunity to participate in a hands-on international hunger relief program and to become educated, engaged advocates for the world’s poor and hungry. It is volunteer-based and coordinates the streamlined packaging of highly nutritious dehydrated meals comprised of rice, soy, vegetables, flavoring, and 21 essential vitamins and minerals.

Founded in 1998, Stop Hunger Now has delivered aid and disaster relief supplies in the form of food, medicines, medical supplies, medical equipment, clothing, school supplies and more to thousands of disaster victims and other hungry and vulnerable people in 65 countries.

More than 300,000 volunteers have participated in the organization’s fun, exciting and rewarding activites. Stop Hunger Now meal packaging provides volunteers the opportunity to have an exponential and sustainable international impact right from their own communities.

The organization operates meal packaging locations in 17 cities throughout the U.S. and international locations in South Africa and Malaysia. Late in 2013, it plans to initiate the meal packaging program in new locations including Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth and Bologna, Italy.

This year Stop Hunger Now shipments have already reached the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco in the Philippines. Here, more than 28 Salesian programs shared 660 boxes of fortified rice-soy meals. More than 3,100 poor children and families benefitted from this food assistance.

“The shipment of packaged meals helps us to improve the nutrition of orphans and other vulnerable children and operate feeding programs for children in Salesian schools whose families cannot afford to feed them,” explains Jessica O’Connor, property and logistics officer at the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs.

Other Stop Hunger Now shipments have been received in Haiti, South Africa, Zambia and Sierra Leone where the meals will be shared among various Salesian programs located in those countries.

“The partnership with Stop Hunger Now allows Salesian Missions to expand its scope of services to youth in need,” adds O’Connor. “Stop Hunger Now is one of our favorite partners to work with because they are very flexible. They actively seek out opportunities to enhance shipments with additional donated items that the beneficiaries need, and they go the extra mile to help Salesian Missions meet any additional emergency requests for food that we receive.”

Partnerships, like those with Salesian Missions, drive Stop Hunger Now’s major distribution channels. According to Barrick, the organization looks for those who are able to work with Stop Hunger Now effectively and efficiently while adding value to each other’s work. Partners are chosen based on the quality of their programs, the need in their country, their ability to ensure the food is used as intended and the expected impact of the partner’s programs.

With programs in more than 130 countries around the globe, Salesian Missions has one of the largest networks that Stop Hunger Now works with and they have extensive knowledge and experience when it comes to aid shipments. The Salesians are an integral part of the existing infrastructure in many countries and Salesian Missions plays an important role in making sure aid from the United States reaches its destination country and gets into the hands of those who need it most.

“Partnering with Salesian Missions has been a great experience and their vast network around the globe provides an opportunity to extend our partnership beyond just one country,” says Barrick. “Their experience in logistics, communications and program facilitation has proven to be a huge asset in effectively donating Stop Hunger Now meals to their organization.”

Barrick also praises Salesian Missions’ staff who she says are very thorough, responsive and excellent at communicating the progress of projects and the state of the beneficiaries. She notes that receiving letters, photos and videos from those who actually receive the food has tremendous impact on the donors they rely on to package the food.

“Feeding hungry children is often the first step in providing an education,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Hungry and malnourished youth cannot focus on learning. Our programs work to educate and meet the basic needs of poor youth.”

At every Salesian program serving youth around the globe, children receive educational opportunities and the support of caring adults. Humanitarian partnerships like the one with Stop Hunger Now make a real difference.

“In order to build the movement to end hunger in our lifetime,” says Barrick. “We will have to work together as partners to share the stories from the field that create champions for our causes.”

ABOUT STOP HUNGER NOW

This year, Stop Hunger Now is celebrating its 15^th anniversary in its ongoing work to create a movement to end hunger. More than 100,000,000 meals have been packaged and distributed with other life-saving aid to 65 countries, impacting millions of lives. The organization is driven by a vision of a world without hunger and a mission to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid to the world’s most vulnerable and by creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources.

In its efforts to respond to emergency needs around the world Stop Hunger Now receives and distributes significant donations of in-kind aid. These donations are large quantities of food, medicines, medical supplies and other such items as may be of use in fighting hunger and providing relief in a crisis. For more information visit www.stophungernow.org.

ABOUT SALESIAN MISSIONS

Salesian Missions is headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, and is part of the Don Bosco Network—a worldwide federation of Salesian NGOs. The mission of the U.S.-based nonprofit Catholic organization is to raise funds for international programs that serve youth and families in poor communities around the globe. The Salesian missionaries are made up of priests, brothers and sisters, as well as laypeople—all dedicated to caring for poor children throughout the world in more than 130 countries and helping young people become self-sufficient by learning a trade that will help them gain employment. To date, more than 3 million youth have received services funded by Salesian Missions. These services and programs are provided to children regardless of race or religion. For more information, go to SalesianMissions.org.

The post Stop Hunger Now, Salesian Missions Partnership Feeds Poor Youth around the Globe first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Shipments are already on the ground in Haiti, Guatemala, Madagascar, Philippines, Sierra Leone and Zambia. Salesian-run orphanages and youth centers are able to utilize the aid for the homeless children and at-risk youth they serve. From primary and secondary schools to vocational and technical training centers, students are able to get more out of the educational opportunities the Salesians provide, knowing they will not go hungry.

Stop Hunger Now operates meal packaging locations in 17 cities throughout the U.S. and in international locations in South Africa and Malaysia. Later this year, the organization plans to initiate the meal packaging program in new locations including Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth and Bologna, Italy.

Stop Hunger Now helps break the cycle of poverty for meal recipients through education, skills development and health care, while providing much-needed nutrition. The majority of meals go to support school feeding, vocational training, early childhood development programs, orphanages and medical clinics.

Stop Hunger Now’s goals are to provide food and life-saving aid to support sustainable education and development programs and to create a movement of educated volunteer advocates that are actively involved in poverty and hunger related issues.

“Salesian Missions is a good match for our mission to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid while creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources,” says Chessney Barrick, director of marketing and communications at Stop Hunger Now.

Salesian programs operate in more than 130 countries around the globe. Salesian Missions helps support programs that promote education, encourage children to attend school, improve the health and nutrition of students, address gender inequalities, combat child labor, spur economic growth and create a platform to address global issues.

Because of the partnership and its resulting shipments, Salesians in the Philippines were able to help feed 3,155 poor youth and their families with the 660 boxes of fortified rice-soy meals they received. The shipment also included shampoo and eyeglasses, helping close to 700 people in need. Twenty-eight Salesian organizations throughout the Philippines were supported through the shipment which was coordinated by Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

The fortified rice-soy meals not only feed hungry children, they give them the energy to participate fully in educational programs and activities.

“Feeding hungry children is often the first step in providing an education,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions. “When children have their most basic needs met, they are then able to concentrate on their studies and further their education.”

For Keisha Mae, a wood and furniture technology trainee in the Philippines, the fortified meals make a significant difference to the quality of her educational experience.

“I often go to school with an empty stomach as there is no food available in the house. During snack time some of my classmates share whatever they have,” explains Keisha Mae, “But since this Rice-Soy Casserole was donated, the training center served it to the trainees during snack time. Its vegetable ingredients make it look so nutritious and satisfy our starving stomachs.”

For parents of those enrolled in programs run by the Salesians of Don Bosco in Freetown, Sierra Leone, this critical food aid gives them peace of mind knowing that despite living in poverty, they are able to give a nutritious meal to their children. Many parents allow their children to attend school simply because they know they will be fed there. Offering just one plate of food, Salesian staff managed to persuade one mother living in poverty to allow her young son to attend activities at the informal school in the youth center and enter the first level of pre-school. Nineteen pallets of rice meals were delivered to programs in Sierra Leone, benefitting close to 1,200 youth.

In another shipment, the City of Hope in Zambia was able to provide for 4,320 people ranging from infants to the elderly. The Salesian center there includes an orphanage and vocational training programs as well as a primary and secondary school. The meals provided by Stop Hunger Now allow the organization to divert money previously used on food to other critical program needs. Money saved was also used to increase the size of the programs provided and number of students admitted.

The Salesian Sisters who run the City of Hope reported that the children receiving the meals are much healthier and have less headaches and hunger pains. In addition, they are better able to focus on their school work and their grades are improving.

“Stop Hunger Now is one of our favorite partners to work with because they are very flexible. They actively seek out opportunities to enhance shipments with additional donated items that the beneficiaries need, and they go the extra mile to help Salesian Missions meet any additional emergency requests for food that we receive,” explains Jessica O’Connor, property and logistics officer at the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs.

With programs in more than 130 countries around the globe, Salesian Missions has one of the largest networks that Stop Hunger Now works with. They also have extensive knowledge and experience when it comes to aid shipments. The Salesians are an integral part of the existing infrastructure in many countries and Salesian Missions plays an important role in making sure aid from the United States reaches its destination country and gets into the hands of those who need it most.

“The partnership with Stop Hunger Now allows Salesian Missions to expand its scope of services to youth in need,” adds O’Connor. “The shipment of packaged meals helps us to improve the nutrition of orphans and other vulnerable children. Operating feeding programs for youth in Salesian schools whose families cannot afford to feed them is very important and integral to the success of our students and their ability to gain an education.”

ABOUT STOP HUNGER NOW

This year, Stop Hunger Now is celebrating its 15^th anniversary in its ongoing work to create a movement to end hunger. More than 100,000,000 meals have been packaged and distributed with other life-saving aid to 65 countries, impacting millions of lives. The organization is driven by a vision of a world without hunger and a mission to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid to the world’s most vulnerable and by creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources.

In its efforts to respond to emergency needs around the world Stop Hunger Now receives and distributes significant donations of in-kind aid. These donations are large quantities of food, medicines, medical supplies and other such items as may be of use in fighting hunger and providing relief in a crisis. For more information visit www.stophungernow.org.

ABOUT SALESIAN MISSIONS

Salesian Missions is headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, and is part of the Don Bosco Network—a worldwide federation of Salesian NGOs. The mission of the U.S.-based nonprofit Catholic organization is to raise funds for international programs that serve youth and families in poor communities around the globe. The Salesian missionaries are made up of priests, brothers and sisters, as well as laypeople—all dedicated to caring for poor children throughout the world in more than 130 countries and helping young people become self-sufficient by learning a trade that will help them gain employment. To date, more than 3 million youth have received services funded by Salesian Missions. These services and programs are provided to children regardless of race or religion. For more information, go to SalesianMissions.org.

The post Salesian Missions, Stop Hunger Now Partner to Deliver Critical Food Aid in More Than 10 Countries first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The United Nations noted that at the end of 2012, there were 43.7 million refugees globally, almost 80 percent of whom are women and children who face daily challenges integrating into their new communities.

A new Salesian program, Porto di Terra, is helping young refugees at the Salesian House of Sacro Cuore in Marsala, Rome. The program, which started in April 2012 and is slated to run through March 2014, assists with the social integration of refugees into their new communities while teaching them new skills and helping them find stable employment.

Many of these refugees are youth who were forced to flee their own countries because of war, famine and other forms of violence and persecution. They come to Rome to ask the Italian Government for recognition and some form of protection. Challenges with integration begin almost as soon as they arrive.

“Our objective is to contribute to the training of the younger generation both Italian-born and foreign, to help their skills training in order to enable them to emerge from situations of disadvantage, marginalization and social difficulty,” says a representative of Alleanza Toro, an insurance company that is helping to fund the program. “It is also our aim to offer assistance and support to families with children in difficult situations of sickness or crisis.”

Close to 120 youth are currently taking part in the program. They are provided Italian language courses, driving instruction, computer workshops and courses for school certification. In addition, professionals work with the refugees as guidance counselors, assessing previous knowledge and experience in order to select the best training program for each individual.

The program also helps the refugees find employment. It aims to place at least ten of its students in local businesses to gain work experience, enabling them to acquire a trade and find later employment.

“Refugees face many barriers when they are forced to leave their homelands for new countries,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Once arriving they may be safer than they were but new challenges arise. Programs like these help refugees navigate their new environment, build important social and professional connections and find stable employment which leads to success and stability in their new homes.”

In addition to the funding from Alleanza Toro, the project is made possible by Salesian Social Services in collaboration with the Salesian Community at Sacro Cuore, the Association CNOS-FAP for the Lazio Region and the Missionary Sisters of the Risen Christ.

Italy is one of more than 130 countries where the Salesians work to give hope and opportunity through skills training and other programs for vulnerable youth. Learn more on at www.salesianmissions.org.

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Sources:

ANS – Italy – Porto di Terra project

UNHCR – World Refugee Day 2013

The post ITALY: Refugee Program in Rome Helps Youth Find Work, Overcome Integration Barriers first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Youth at risk of poverty or social exclusion are typically found in single parent families, large families and immigrant and ethnic minority families. With almost 10 percent unemployment, often spanning generations, youth with unemployed or underemployed parents also face a higher risk of poverty.

In addition, almost 15 percent of youth leave school without achieving a secondary education.

These conditions give rise to a staggering youth unemployment rate which is about twice the average when compared to the general population. Almost one fourth of youth are unemployed and face daily struggles to find employment and earn a livable wage.

To combat these challenges, the Salesians held a seven day training course called, “Transforming Voluntarism into Social Entrepreneurship” in early April at the Salesian Youth Center in Sliema, Malta. The course was funded by the European Commission and utilized project management within “Youth in Action” programs as a tool for developing entrepreneurial competence.

Designed and organized by Don Bosco Youth Net, the training program aims to motivate young volunteers to take the initiative to develop solutions for problems faced by young people across the European Union today.

“Salesians are working across the European Union to help youth find their own path out of poverty,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Youth need the tools, the education and support to help them on a path to a productive life. Courses like this help propel youth in the right direction, encouraging them to take responsibility for their lives and their futures.”

Twenty youth representing Austria, Belgium, Germany, Slovenia, Poland, Spain, Malta, the UK, Czech Republic and Italy took part in the training course. Learning the differences between voluntarism, social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship through role playing, presentations and active work, the students learned how to turn ideas and concepts into action.

Each session combined elements of theoretical and practical work and challenged youth to utilize both personal and team skills to develop their abilities to plan and manage projects in order to achieve social objectives. Youth were challenged to design an innovative product to fit the needs of people in modern times.

Ideas ranged from arranging a festival to building a hostel. The students learned how to create a project based on ideas that had been collected. Then they explored how to finance their project and apply for funding from the European Union. Students received feedback from experts and their peers as they discussed their ideas for implementation.

“Sometimes jobs just aren’t available for youth”, adds Fr. Hyde. “The program’s overall focus on social entrepreneurship helps youth create their own opportunities in their local communities.”

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Sources:

ANS – Malta – Young Volunteers become Social Entrepreneurs to Fight Youth Unemployment

UNICEF – Tens of millions of children living in poverty in the world’s richest countries

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“The rise of the South is unprecedented in its speed and scale,” says the Human Development Report 2013, which uses the term “South” to mean developing countries and “North” to mean developed nations. “Never in history have the living conditions and prospects of so many people changed so dramatically and so fast.”

Meanwhile, the slowdown in economic growth, austerity measures and rampant unemployment in the industrialized world has brought pressure to bear on governments and societies in the North. Global economic and political structures are in flux and the sustainability of the growth spurt in the South is subject to the interrelated issues of governance and public investment.

The year’s report, entitled The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World, emphasizes that this change represents a global rebalancing far greater than that experienced during the Industrial Revolution, with the South becoming the main driver of economic growth and societal change for the first time in centuries.

“The Industrial Revolution was a story of perhaps 100 million people, but this is a story about billions of people,” said Khalid Malik, the report’s lead author.

The Human Development Report, released annually by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), assesses the state of human development on the basis of health, education and income indicators, as an alternative to purely macroeconomic assessments of national progress.

The initial report was published in 1990 by its authors, the late Mahbub ul Haq and Amartya Sen, and introduced a Human Development Index (HDI), which had been calculated by UN economists from 1975, and was essentially a ranking of countries based on strides made with a people-centric model of progress.

The HDI became an influential paradigm that would prod economists, government agencies, planners and development experts to rethink the income-based indicators that were in standard use to measure development success.

Launched today in Mexico City by UNDP Administrator Helen Clark and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, this year’s report singles out big economies which have shown significant growth over the past 20 years, namely China, India and Brazil. It estimates that by 2020, the combined output of these three countries will surpass the aggregate production of the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada.

However, the ‘rise of the South’ goes well beyond these economies as more than 40 developing countries have made greater human development gains in recent decades than what was predicted.

Countries such as Indonesia, Mexico, Bangladesh, Tanzania and Yemen all registered significant growth, while nations such as Afghanistan and Pakistan had some of the fastest growth rates in the world with 3.9 percent and 1.7 percent over the past 12 years, respectively.

How has the South achieved such dramatic growth levels?

The report attributes many of the achievements of the South to smart national strategies that have allowed them to engage in the global economy while at the same time implementing social programmes that protect those most vulnerable.

“Economic growth alone does not automatically translate into human development progress,” Miss Clark says in the report’s foreword. Southern States are therefore not just tapping into global trade, but they are also improving health and education services, which have allowed them to sustain their growth. This comes in contrast to policies adopted by many developed countries which include austerity measures and cutting social programmes due to the economic crisis.

In Latin America, many countries have put in place programmes to eradicate poverty and address inequality such as Brazil’s Bolsa Familia, Mexico’s Oportunidades, and Chile’s Chile Solidario. These are conditional cash transfer programmes which offer to increase people’s income as long as they fulfil certain conditions such as visits to health clinics and school attendance.

This combination of policies has allowed the middle class in the South to expand and, by 2030, the report projects that more than 80 percent of the world’s middle class will reside in developing countries and account for 70 percent of total consumption expenditure.

Increasing online and mobile connectivity in the South

Increasing connectivity thanks to greater access to technology is also a factor that has contributed to the South’s growth. Globally, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Mexico have more daily social media traffic than any country except the US. China also has more than half a billion people accessing the Internet daily through smart phones.

Indonesia, for example, invested extensively to connect its large cluster of far-flung islands to open the country to the outside world, and as of 2010, 220 million mobile phones were registered in a country of 240 million people.

In Africa, Asian-built mobile phones have made cellular banking cheaper and easier, while leading to better market performance and increased profits by small farmers, as seen in Kenya, Niger and Uganda.

Increasing incomes and the diffusion of technology have also given way to a more informed middle class that has social and political expectations, Mr. Malik said in a press briefing on Tuesday, which means that “the relationship between the State and its citizens is changing.”

He warned that if States are not mindful of these expectations, it could lead to social instability, as was the case in 2011 in various countries across the Middle East.

“The turmoil in several countries in the Arab States is a reminder that people, especially the young, who are better educated and healthier than previous generations, put a high premium on meaningful employment, on exercising a voice in affairs that influence their lives, and on being treated with respect,” the report says.

Booming South-South partnerships

The report highlights the increase in South-South trade and partnerships and projects that trade between them will overtake that between developed nations.

“Emerging partners in the developing world are already sources of innovative social and economic policies and are major trade, investment and increasingly development cooperation partners for other developing countries,” Miss Clark said.

China is already influential in Africa through trade investment as well as through assistance and cooperation. Between 1992 and 2011, China’s trade with Sub-Saharan Africa rose from $1 billion to more than $140 billion.

India is increasingly playing a larger role as a supplier of affordable capital goods to other countries of the South. For instance, Indian firms are supplying affordable medicines, medical equipment and information and communications technology (ICT) products and services to many countries in Africa.

In addition, migration between developing countries has recently surpassed net migration from South to North. “In our changing world, solutions are moving across the South, not from the North to the South,” said UNDP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Ajay Chhibber.

However, a substantial share of South-South trade is driven by demand in the North. For example, since 2007, US exports to China and Latin America and the Caribbean have grown two and a half times faster than US exports to traditional markets in the North. A growing “app economy” supported by companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google employs more than 300,000 people whose creations are exported across borders, and developing country economies continue to be sensitive to shocks in the industrialized world.

Women’s education as a silver bullet for sustainable growth

While there has been remarkable progress, the report warns that there are still many challenges ahead for countries in the South, including an aging population, environmental degradation and inequality. Poverty and inequality are particularly worrying, as an estimated 1.57 billion people, representing 30 percent of the population in the 104 countries studied for the report, still live in multidimensional poverty.

The report provides a series of recommendations and, in particular, highlights education for girls as “the closest thing to silver bullet formula for accelerating human development.”

Many of the countries in the South still have dramatic gender disparities, and their challenge will be to boost efforts to allow women to participate freely in all aspects of their society.

“Gender inequality is especially tragic not only because it excludes women from basic social opportunities, but also because it gravely imperils the life prospects of future generations,” the report says, referring to findings which correlate women’s education to greater child survival, healthier children and better access to contraception.

The report also notes that the global system will need to adjust itself to the rise of the South, which is currently largely underrepresented in global institutions. For example, China, which is the world’s second largest economy, has had a smaller voting share in the World Bank than either France or the United Kingdom.

“Stronger voices from the South are demanding more representative frameworks of international governance that embody the principles of democracy and equity.”

Meanwhile, it merits mention that not all countries in the South are racing ahead. Of the world’s 49 Least Developed Countries, many are lagging behind in this revolution. Even as some are beginning to benefit from Foreign Direct Investment of the emerging giants like China, India and Brazil, there is much more to be done in terms of development transformation.

The report observes that there are three drivers of transformation: a proactive development state, tapping of global markets and determined social policy inclusion. Looking back at the inception of the HDI, it appears that countries that started at the same level – India and Pakistan, or Chile and Venezuela, or Liberia and Senegal – have ended up with different outcomes.

“History and initial conditions matter, but they are not destiny,” according to the report.

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See this United Nations article at its original location >

Rice fields in Sichuan, China. UN Photo/John Isaac

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