(ANS - Zumbahua: 16 January 2007) - The new President of the Republic of Ecuador, the economist Rafael Correa Delgado, accompanied by his collaborators symbolically received the Presidential mandate in the Salesian house on Zumbahua, where as a young man he had served as a volunteer.
Zumbahua is a native village in the sierra of Ecuador about 150 km from the capital and 3200 metres above sea level. In this mission the Salesians work on behalf of the native population with the valuable assistance of young people from the "Salesian Voluntary Youth Service." The new President recalled with gratitude the two years he lived in the Salesian community, involved in pastoral and educational work with the native peoples in the area. "The Salesian mission in Zumbahua is my second home and marked the begining of my journey of service and justice ..." the President said in the course of an open air Mass attended by 5,000 supporters and the local native people. On this occasion he received the "commander`s staff" of the Ecuadorian native people.
Present at the celebration were various delegations and Heads of State including the Presidents of the Republic of Venezuela and of Bolivia. Mass the said by Fr Luigi Ricchiardi, Rector of the Salesian house in Zumbahua.
After the time spent as a volunteer in Zumbahua the new President kept in contact with the group who were working on behalf of the native community in large part directed by the Salesians. In addition, for a number of years the future President Correa was a leader of the Scout Movement in the "Cristóbal Colon" Salesian College in Guayaquil.
At the end of the celebration President Correa telephoned Italy to Pavone del Mella in the province of Brescia, to speak to the family of Fr Antonio Bresciani, a Salesian missionary in Zumbahua who died in 1997,and with whom he had worked as a volunteer.
