The ceremony was chaired by Alounxai Souvannalath, Secretary General of the Lao Youth Union and member of the Lao National Assembly, in the presence of over 100 officials of the Lao Youth Union, on the occasion of the institution's annual evaluation meeting.
The awarding of these medals and certificates from the Laotian institutions to the religious sons and daughters of Don Bosco was intended to represent a public sign of appreciation for the great work that the “Don Bosco” Salesian Foundation of Thailand has been doing to help the poor and needy young people of Laos.
The manager of the Thai company "Rach-Lao" also received a medal for sponsoring scholarships to help young people start their business.
“Let us thank the Lord and Don Bosco that our work for poor youth is known at the government level. We hope that these signs of appreciation will bear fruit for the development of our Don Bosco Center and in the land of Laos, where many young people are still waiting for Don Bosco,” said Fr Maccioni on the occasion.
The work of the Salesians in Laos began on 24 May 2004 under the guidance of Fr Tito Pedron and Sanya Boonprasert, a Past Pupil of Don Bosco, through a first workshop on the repair of small vehicles. This activity was called “Mitr Samphan”, and was run by five young Laotians who were Past Pupils of the Don Bosco Technological College in Bangkok, Thailand. Later, that first workshop was expanded and became the Don Bosco Vocational Training Center at its current location.
The canonical erection of the Salesian house took place just two years ago, on 17 January 2019. Currently the community sees Fr Maccioni as Rector and two other confreres: Fr John Paul Vu Van Trung and Fr John Baptist Huy Hoan.
https://www.infoans.org/en/sections/news/item/12025-laos-certificates-and-medals-of-honor-for-salesian-family-representatives?tmpl=component&print=1#sigProId3dadbcc508
