(ANS - Rome) – The Salesian-run day centre at Don Bosco Boys' Town is a multifunctional daytime service for Italian and foreign children who have been sentenced for criminal offences. It offers them alternative measures to prison and also caters for those who for various reasons have dropped out of school. In the past year there were many new features and the centre contributed to the human development of more than 200 young people.
A total of sixty-seven young people enrolled in morning courses at the day centre and there are about eighty-five others who attend a workshop for training and work. In the afternoon the "Skole" programme helps about fifty-five young people with their school work and there are another twenty-five enrolled in two courses to become pizza chefs.
In total, more than seventy people have helped the activities of the centre in various ways. These include the people in charge, Salesians, Community Service volunteers, other volunteers, practical trainees and novices.
According to one of the staff, "There are more than 300 people on the premises, in the village and in the city, all involved in the activities, sometimes at different times of the day or on different days. Often they do not even know each other, but they all want to make the young people feel welcome and at home".
Compared to previous years the morning courses were attended by a smaller number of young people. This was a conscious choice made with a view to upgrading some other activities, such as the catering course which has been transferred to the Vocational Training Centre which is also part of Don Bosco Boys' Town, and the course for gardeners which has been upgraded.
This is the 23rd year of operation of the day centre. To celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco a pilgrimage to Turin was organized, to get to know the places where it all started. As some of the staff said "It was an opportunity to really become aware of how it all started from that first boy welcomed then by Don Bosco, and from the first boy met by Fr Alfonso Alfano (fondly known as Zi 'Fonzo – uncle Fonsie) to the Village in 1991. Everything was already included potentially in that first welcome which Don Bosco entrusted to Our Lady with a Hail Mary said in faith.”
Published 09/07/2015
