(ANS – Rome) – With the approach of the end of 2011, the European Year of Voluntary Service, and recalling Salesian Missions Day 2011 dedicated to Missionary Voluntary Service, we are publishing an open letter from the coordinator of the BOVA Salesian programme.

An open letter to all who’ve supported Salesian volunteers around the world

Dear friends,

Thank you!

In a perfect world, this letter would be read by every Salesian, Salesian Sister, Co-operator, member of staff, local animator, young person and anyone else who has had an impact on a volunteer’s experience. These people will probably never know how much good they’ve done – but this is just a small gesture to share something of the impact they’ve had upon volunteers, and, through them, on the wider world. I hope these words will serve to show our gratitude, offer encouragement (especially on those rare days when volunteers are less than perfect!) and let the wider Salesian world know about their good work. 

I work for BOVA (www.boscovolunteeraction.co.uk), sending volunteers from the Province of Great Britain to communities around the world. While these volunteers are useful to the young people they work with during their time overseas, I’m under no illusion about who gets the greatest benefit from these experiences - the volunteers themselves. Therefore we put particular emphasis on volunteers’ learning while they are away and on continued involvement in the Salesian family, faith in action and poverty issues after their return. In this way, the time overseas provides a chance to learn through action; serving the young in another culture while learning lessons about the difference between “want” and “need”, the importance of community, growing in empathy and solidarity, and in passion for justice and peace issues.

At a meeting in Rome, I was one of seven co-ordinators of Salesian volunteer organisations from Europe, the USA and Australia who met with Fr. Vaclav Klement SDB, the Councillor for the Missions, to reflect upon volunteer formation. We noted the impact returned volunteers have had in our Provinces and all agreed on the importance of formation offered by hosting communities. We shared the desire to thank and encourage them.

Our model of “learning through action” relies on busy people, often already working more than full time with young people, as well as giving time to their communities, provinces, families, prayer lives and so on, somehow finding time to support our volunteers. And yet, somehow, they do! It would be impossible to give a complete list, but the following examples give a taste of Salesians and co-workers going the extra mile:
•    Fr Joseph and BREADS (the development office of the Salesian Province of Bangalore) provide volunteers with an orientation and training programme centrally before moving them to their host community
•    Various communities invite volunteers to join them on days of retreat and recollection
•    Br Carlo and the Salesian Lay Volunteer Organisation (SALVO) in the Philippines South Province gather volunteers (including local volunteers) together for formation and reflection
•    Fr Martin in Manzini, Swaziland, takes volunteers out for a coffee and a chat
•    Fr.Thamburaj sdb, Director of Cauveri Development Office, Tiruchy Province in India, welcomed a volunteer then invited her to join him at a wedding – an experience she will never forget
•    Dahlia, the social worker in Don Bosco Pasil, arranged home-stay experiences for volunteers
•    Seemingly the entire Central America Province, Salesians and staff, offered the most incredible support when one of our volunteers was in a coma following a bus crash in Guatemala

I could go on and on. By being present to our volunteers, these people have a huge impact – inviting them to think deeply about different cultures, poverty, faith and vocation. And it does not stop there; the results can be seen following the volunteers returning to their home provinces:

•    A number of volunteers have come back to faith or to the Church as a direct result of their time with Salesian communities overseas
•    Volunteers come home with a passion to work with the young and the poor in their own context – a great example is the returned volunteers who have set up an oratory in Vienna or those who have taken part in summer projects here in the UK
•    Jane, who spent 6 months living and working with 40 ex-child labourers in a Salesian community in Karnataka, India, has returned to Ireland and assisted the Irish Salesians in setting up SAVIO (Salesian Volunteers Ireland & Overseas), a new Salesian volunteer organisation
•    Returned volunteers have produced education resources for use in their home contexts (see, for example, http://boscovolunteeraction.co.uk/Resources.aspx)
•    The Australia-Pacific Province was recently proud to share the story of a young man who has entered formation as a result of his time as a volunteer in their Cagliero volunteer programme. He is by no means the only one – both the Salesian Lay Missioners (New Rochelle Province, USA) and Jugend Eine Welt (Austria) can tell similar stories, and at least one of BOVA's returned volunteers is currently discerning a Religious vocation
•    Numerous returned volunteers have involvement with justice and peace issues, including corruption, injustices around mining, child prostitution and climate change
 
Fr Petrus, from the Austrian Salesian volunteer organisation, captured the importance of those who support of these volunteers when he noted that although they may not be coming here as “Project Europe” missionaries, this work puts them in complete solidarity with its aims. We must continue to build on the good work they have done; the Rector Major challenged us to provide “institutional responses” to returned volunteers, and to invite them to consider their vocation to the Salesian Co-operators.

I would like to end this letter by once again thanking everyone who supports our volunteers and inviting all who read this to keep them in their prayers,

With thanks,

James Trewby
Bosco Volunteer Action

Published 30/12/2011