Last year, "Missioni Don Bosco," the Salesian Mission Office in Turin, on the occasion of the International Day of Street Children, which is celebrated on April 12, launched a project to assist the Salesian mission in Makululu, aimed at providing food, hospitality, medical care, and psychological support to an additional 90 children. About a year later, Fr. Michael Wzietek, a Polish Salesian missionary, Director and Economer of the local Salesian mission, sent the report of the project: the Salesians of the community were able to continue the activities of identifying, welcoming, and helping the area's numerous street children and youth.
Thanks to international solidarity, it was possible to support the expenses of the entire staff - a social worker, two janitors, an outreach worker, a cook, and a driver who took care of all supplies - in addition to the basic necessities guaranteed to the young people newly welcomed to the center: clothes, food, medical care, and psychological support. The minors underwent literacy and educational training, and when conditions allowed, the youngsters were placed on a family reunification path.
Another very valuable activity has been what is called "outreach assistance," which is an activity carried out twice a week, in a first phase on the street, during which the Salesians try to have initial contact with the younger ones to inform them about the dangers of the street and to try to bring them closer to the Salesian home; and, in a second phase, with the families of the abandoned or runaway children, to begin to better understand the family situation and gather as much information as possible that would be useful for a future path of reintegration.
According to data from the Salesians of the Makululu community, about 50 children are sleeping on the streets of Kabwe, and nearly 100 regularly visit the town to beg and perform small jobs - collecting and reselling bottles and trading plastic or food products, such as vegetables, fish and fitumbuwa, local baked pancakes.
"The children who have successfully completed the family reunification process fall into a further path," Father Wzietek tells us. "They are visited regularly, and during this period we provide the parents with a kind of 'counseling' to make them aware of the importance of parenting and the dangers of children living on the streets, so that we do everything to prevent the child from leaving the family and home again."
Family reintegration comes with many challenges, and during this time the Salesians have recorded many of them: some families do not accept their children because of the situation they are in; other children are unable to be with their parents for various reasons - most of the time it depends on alcohol abuse or lack of attention.
For his part, however, Fr. Wzietek, with all the Salesians and lay collaborators, has no doubts: "We will continue to carry out the many activities to support the most vulnerable children, and we are happy with the results so far! Thank you to everyone who has supported us."
For more information, please visit: www.missionidonbosco.org
