Here, the Don Bosco youth centre, founded in 2014, is run by four Salesian priests, two cooks and a volunteer, and takes in 60 young people and children from difficult backgrounds, including single-parent families, dysfunctional families and orphan situations. Often they are kids living on the streets. Most of the young people attend a local school from year 6 to 12 and depend entirely on the community for their daily needs.
Although the Myanmar Mary Help of Christians Vice-Province (MYM) offers regular financial support, the help is not enough: the missionaries continue to struggle to cope with rising costs for stationery, health care and education.
The Don Bosco youth centre is a loving and familiar environment where every child feels valued and cared for. Before the earthquake it also organised short vocational training courses (electrical wiring, computer and motorbike repair), but then the earthquake severely damaged the buildings and the Salesians were forced to suspend them.
Today, the centre is a welcoming home, a precious place where food, education and sports, music and cultural activities are guaranteed.
Because of the financial difficulties in which they live, the Salesians in Mandalay have asked for help to continue guaranteeing food support to 60 children and young people between the ages of 8 and 18, young people who come from vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds and are increasingly socially marginalised. The Salesians also find it difficult to meet food expenses, to buy rice, oil, beans, eggs, onions and garlic and to continue to offer three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
‘This support is a valuable help for our mission: it allows these children to continue to grow up in safety, dignity and with hope,’ Father Zeya Aung, a Don Bosco missionary, wrote to the ‘Missioni Don Bosco’ Mission Office in Turin.
The aim of the Salesians is to give these children what for many is taken for granted: nourishment, security and an educational path that accompanies them towards a future of responsibility, dignity and love.
For more information, please visit: www.missionidonbosco.org
