Almudena Gallardo, Paco Rendón, María José Campaña, Inma Marín and Mario García members of the NGO Solidaridad Don Bosco have been preparing for nine months to become volunteers at the Salesian centre “Foyer Immaculé” in Kara, welcoming and looking after street children. On Saturday afternoon 2 July – according the to newspaper “la Voz Digital” – at the Salesian Institute in Cadiz they explained the purpose and the programme of their missionary expedition.
“The purpose,” Paco Rendón said, “ is to offer our help to the permanent workers in the Kara community.” To be able to do so, the 5 volunteers had to have a number of injections, improve their knowledge of French and be ready to give up their normal comfortable existence as they prepare for the impact of the life of street children.
They will begin on 15 July travelling as far as Casablanca, Marocco. From there they will go to Togo, and on to Kara. Here they will be mainly engaged in helping in the workshops and with the sports activities. The role is not particularly difficult for the 5 volunteers, coming from the “San Ignacio” Salesian Institute in Cadiz and the Centre in Campano. The difficult part will be the setting. “We know that we won’t be able to change what we see. We have been advised to ‘take in’ the experience well, since it will be a great shock,” Mario García said.
The missionary expedition is also meant to strengthen an already existing “twinning arrangement” between the Salesian centres in Cadiz and in Kara, which in recent years had begun to flag. The Spanish Salesian community hopes that this experience can be repeated in future years. “We are the vanguard,” Almudena Gallardo said enthusastically.
The voluntary service experience will not only bear fruit in the month spent in Togo. “The idea is to be able to offer a witness, it is not something that will finish with our return to Cadiz” María José Campaña concluded.
Published 07/07/2011
