Since November, this region has been plunged into a conflict between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). The area, located 700 kilometers north of the capital, Addis Ababa, and which has 6 million inhabitants, hosts four Salesian works (Macallè, Adigrat, Shire and Adua), with a total of 25 Salesians committed to training young people and accompanying families immersed in war.
Shortages of fuel, food and resources in general are, after all this time, becoming extremely critical, even for humanitarian organizations in the region. The “Don Bosco Foundation - France” hopes to raise enough money to provide basic necessities (food and clothing) for two months to 300 families in contact with Salesian educational centers.
The second appeal concerns the Sainte-Marie elementary school, located in Saint-Geniez-Olt, a town of 2,000 inhabitants in Aveyron, in the Lot and Aubrac valleys. Like many schools in rural areas, the situation of this work, faithful to Salesian pedagogy, is fragile. But it could recover through renovation: the school building, in fact, is equipped with a structure that once served as a boarding school, but which is now closed because it needs to be refurbished and updated to current standards.
Through restructuring, the Foundation would like not only to support educational activities, but also to transform the former boarding school into a structure for hosting tourists, so as to develop an income-generating activity in favor of the institute and to promote a model of enhancement of rural realities and sustainable tourism.
