(ANS – Bruxelles) – The Salesian NGO Don Bosco International took up membership, on 16 March, of the European Alliance for Sunday, a network of civil societies, unions, work providers and religious communities committed to influencing public opinion on the value of having a single day of rest for families in the context of the European Union.

Sunday is the day proposed, and more generally, working hours which respect the needs of working families. These are two of the issues the campaign is focusing on. In a Declaration made on 18 February 2011, the European Alliance for Sunday underscored the importance of a balance between family and working life, for social cohesion.

Currently one out of three European citizens works regularly on Sundays. The failure of talks on the European Union Directive on working hours last December, has increased the risk of even more flexible working hours, and accompanying risk to health and the psychological balance of workers.

The European Alliance for Sunday is pressing for an all-European policy to improve health and social security for all citizens; a policy that would offer an opportunity to everyone to synchronise rest occasions and spend them together at home with the family.

On the European Day for Sundays Free from Work, 3 March, national Alliance members organised activities to propose Sunday as a common rest day, and a pa4rt of our European history.

Don Bosco International is a non-Government organisation (NGO) based in Brussels and seeks to bring local Salesian activities and works focused on education and social welfare into contact with international bodies in Europe in order to influence policies on behalf of the rights of individuals, especially if they are young. It represents the Salesians of Don Bosco in bodies such as the EU and the Council of Europe.

As part of a network of Salesian partners in 14 member States of the European Union, DBI represents the work carried out by Salesians in 406 educational centres serving 182,500 young people through formal education, and an unquantifiable number of young people in various other structures operating for their benefit.

Free of any political ideology, DBI appeals to all Salesians who are working with migrants and other young people who are in any way excluded or marginalised in society, inviting them to collaborate with its activity of support for and safeguarding rights, confident that Don Bosco himself would have wanted precisely this.

Published 04/04/2013