Advice for Girls in South Africa: “Aim higher!”
November 6, 2019
Innocentia Vilakazi is a woman in a man’s world: a successful welder who helped build Mbombela Stadium—home to South Africa’s 2010 FIFA World Cup—as well as the imposing Medupi Power Station in Limpopo. She’s also an instructor at the Don Bosco Educational Projects (DBEP) in the suburbs...
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“Thank you for the clean water!”
October 18, 2019Picture this: a steady stream of women, laboriously approaching a foul-smelling pool of water, each carrying an empty 20-liter bucket on her head. Taking turns, they plunge their containers into the mire—filling them to capacity before hauling 44 pounds of contaminated water home to their...
From a Life of Despair … Into a Future of Hope
October 18, 2019Adriana arrived with nothing but the shoes on her feet and the clothes on her back. At just 17 years old, she had already endured displacement, destitution and discrimination at levels that no one should ever have to experience. She had slept on the street, begged for money and engaged in petty...
New Program Plants the Seeds of Hope in Ghana
October 18, 2019Youth migration—and the poverty that drives it—is a key concern for Salesian missionaries serving in Ghana. Here, a budding agricultural project promises to cultivate a new generation of skilled farmers whose capabilities will command a decent salary, contribute to their country’s sustainable...
Overcoming Adversity in the Solomon Islands
September 10, 2019In the poverty-stricken community of Ranadi, a suburb of Honiara in the Solomon Islands, overcoming economic adversity is an uphill battle for families—one often fought, and lost, in the trash heaps of the local dumps. Destitute parents often keep their children out of school to help them dig...
Changing the Life of a Young Migrant
September 10, 2019She is the daughter of a migrant worker who bounced back and forth between Morocco and Italy during her most formative years. As a child, Fatima never dreamed she could overcome the social, cultural and language barriers she faced in her adoptive country…until one compassionate teacher helped...
Tracing the Pattern for Brighter Futures
September 10, 2019Despite being a country rich in oil, millions of people in the Republic of Congo—nearly half the country’s population—live in abject poverty. And, despite concerted governmental efforts to combat discrimination, girls and young women suffer the additional effects of gender inequality, which...
Critical Health Care Changes Lives
August 9, 2019Young Nataly could have died from the tumor growing undetected in her left leg. Fortunately, her aunt’s foresight led this 17-year-old to a health clinic run by Salesian missionaries in Quito, Ecuador—and she now walks without pain, grateful for her second chance. Born in Pesillo, a rural...