Uganda – The protagonists of the "125 dollars" of Fr Ángel Fernández Artime
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27 February 2019

(ANS - Kampala) - The Salesian Family of the whole world has been touched by the message of the Rector Major of February 2019 entitled: "For 125 dollars more. The most splendid and precious money I have ever seen." This message speaks of the generosity of the young poor in Kampala and of the South Sudanese refugees who are in the refugee camp of Palabek. Here is the story of the two Salesian communities, protagonists of this generosity.

The Salesians settled in Kampala in 2005 to work on the educational project "Children and Life Mission" (CALM), founded in 1998 by two Comboni missionaries and a Jesuit. The Salesians have inherited this project, adapting it to their charism and to their educational system. They currently accompany 165 young people and children. The goal of the project was to take the children off the streets and offer them a home and basic education.

Among the young people who come from the street, there are a good number of HIV-positive people or with rather serious illnesses. The CALM project provides them with adequate care, so it is impossible to distinguish between HIV-positive and non-HIV children. Once established in the Salesian house, minors receive a solid elementary education, which allows them to continue their secondary or technical studies.

Many of the guests come from disrupted families. Salesians always try to re-establish parental bonds, gradually integrating these children into their respective families. It was these former street children who gave the Rector Major an envelope containing 100 dollars for the poorest in the world.

The Salesians of Don Bosco have been present in the Palabek refugee camp since January 31, 2018. The civil war broke out in South Sudan in December 2013 and the increase in insecurity since July 2016 has led a large number of people to flee to Uganda and to neighboring countries. The vast majority of refugee children in South Sudan do not go to school and there is a real danger: an entire generation of refugee children could lose their future due to their lack of education.

It is to take care of these abandoned youth that the Salesians have settled in the Palabek camp - which according to various statistics is home to 36,780 refugees, 65.8% of whom are minors.

Furthermore, in the district of Lamwo (where the Palabek camp is located), there were only two vocational schools, both however far from the camp. For this reason, on 31 January 2019, one year after their arrival, the Salesians opened a vocational training school within the refugee camp.

To return to the Rector's 125 dollars, 25 of those dollars were donated by these refugees, who have nothing but have been able to overcome themselves to help other suffering people.

The Rector Major encouraged us to say what we do: "I ask that the Salesians of Don Bosco and the entire Salesian Family throughout the world please make known how much good is being done everywhere – not just by us but also by many persons, groups, and institutions. We have to make the good known, to make it visible. For if we do not, only what is evil and egotistical is seen for this is made visible and known – but only for the selfish interests of a few."

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ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication, the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007.

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