(ANS - Bukavu) -The Salesian work of Don Bosco Bukavu was started in 2014. The missionaries working there spoke to ANS about the current situation, their work and their challenges and hopes for the future. The community is made up of Fr Robert, a newly ordained priest, bursar and principal of the school; Domingo, a Salesian brother, in charge of the welding and mechanical laboratory, and Fr Piero, the Rector.

Things developed very quickly. No sooner had we taken possession of the house, than we had to start thinking about the opening of the school year on 7 September. Our centre is located in the Municipality of Kadutu,in front of the central prison and three hundred metres from Independence Square, where you can meet many street kids doing what they have to do to survive - washing cars, carrying luggage and parcels, dumping the rubbish from the neighbourhood in the canal, stealing or begging.

Most of these young people have very limited education. They have attended a few years of primary school and then left because their families could not pay school fees. Other young people, victims of the same conditions, have found work as stevedores at the port of Bukavu.

This is the type of young people we opened our school for. We wanted to give them the opportunity to learn a trade and enter the world of work. We started with a hundred trainees because our centre cannot accommodate any more. Given that most of them have long since dropped out of school and have been living on the street, it seemed right to start with literacy and remedial education to try to raise their level of knowledge.

In the first two months, the young people have been attending French lessons and computer classes. They play sports twice a week and we are able to prepare a meal for them most days. From mid-November we started professional training.  Taking into account the limits of space and equipment, we proposed that they do a modular course of 8 months to learn a trade as carpenter, builder or driver.

We open every day with the "good morning" – a few words of encouragement spoken by a confrere or a teacher - and a short prayer. We try to put into practice the three things that Don Bosco recommended: prayer, joy and work. Despite the limitations of space, the Don Bosco Centre accommodates a hundred young people from the school or the surrounding area for games four afternoons a week.

There are over fifty aspirants who receive French lessons once a week, and an introduction to Salesian consecrated life. Some of them come to the oratory in the afternoon, others assist in the school in the morning. They also have a day of retreat once a month. We hope to get to know them better gradually and help them to discern their vocation. A dozen young people and adults are preparing to become Salesian Cooperators, and we have invited the past pupils to form their own group.

Domingo participates in Sunday activities in the prison chaplaincy, a well-organized group of religious and lay people, who do everything they can to show compassion to our brother prisoners. They have asked the Salesians to work with the younger prisoners of whom there are about thirty at present, kept in a separate section of the prison. The President of the Juvenile Court agrees and has asked us to take care of the young people coming out of prison so that they can learn a trade from us.

Don Bosco promised his Salesians bread, work and heaven. Through the school, the good morning talk, games, walks, meals, oratory, prayer, in short, by our presence, we want to pass on this legacy to marginalized youth. In Bukavu, as elsewhere, we welcome them as in a new family, we teach them a skill that will allow them to live honestly, and we try to show them the Lord's merciful love. With the help of confreres, cooperators, past pupils, candidates, employees and so on, Don Bosco Bukavu is looking day after day for a way to build a future for the young people on the margins of society.

Published 23/12/2015