In Condoto, Salesian Missions built the first and only schools in the area and is improving the lives of the students and all members of the communities — for generations to come. Condoto is a remote village nestled in the middle of a tropical rainforest in western Colombia. Most of the 30,000 inhabitants are descendants of Africans who escaped the slave trade. Mining is the main source of income — with low pay and harsh working conditions.

The Don Bosco Center in Ciudad Bolivar, one of the most dangerous areas in Bogota, provides educational opportunities and employment for young people affected by the armed conflict and other situations of vulnerability through a program with Pacto Motor.

During the 2014-2015 school year, more than 900 students were engaged in professional training courses. The program was developed in response to the need for skilled labor for the automobile and transport industries while noting that youth from Ciudad Bolivar were often rejected in the employment selection process. After the first class graduated in 2013, more than 150 youth, or 98 percent of Pacto Motor’s first graduating class, found employment after successfully completing the program.

As a result of the Pacto Motor program’s success, the Colombian Ministry of Labor is using the Salesian training model to develop additional pilot projects focused on employment industries in other cities in Colombia.

In another training program, the Don Bosco Training Center in Armenia opened to provide education and workforce development services to poor youth in the area. The region has more than half its population under 25 years of age. Unemployment, especially for youth, is commonplace because of a lack of industry in the region. The center includes classrooms, a library, a sports field and administrative space for staff. Technical courses are currently being offered in the areas of tourism, culinary arts, accounting, information technology, cosmetology, mechanics and welding.

Don Bosco City is one of the oldest and largest programs for street children in Latin America. Since its start in 1965, the program has rescued more than 83,000 boys and girls. Today, much of its work focuses on the effects on youth after decades of armed conflict in the country, which left behind some 8 million victims. Thousands of children have been part of these armed groups, forced to fight and kill at a very young age.

It is estimated that close to 6,000 minors are still utilized as child soldiers with thousands more having reached their 18th birthday after years of combat. The long rehabilitation process focuses on three things youth need to learn — how to trust, to have hope for the future and to build relationships with others. Psychologists and teachers work together with youth, giving them the tools for a better future, including providing basic education and more advanced skills training that will lead to stable employment.

Through the program, Salesian missionaries offer a multi-pronged approach designed to address the broad social issues that contribute to the poverty and exploitation these youth face while training them in the skills necessary to break the cycle of violence and poverty. Currently, there are 900 youth between the ages of 8 and 12 living and receiving education at the program.

In recent years, more than 450,000 people fled the violence of Colombia to neighboring Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama and Costa Rica. Salesian Missions’ New Beginnings initiative, started in 2011, has provided more than 1,000 Colombian refugees in these four countries vocational and human development training as well as job placement services.

Without the prospect of a job, it was hard for Colombian refugees to create stability for their families and build new lives. The New Beginnings program granted each refugee 260 hours of technical training as well as 40 hours of human development workshops. The training programs, coupled with the job placement services, allowed victims of violence and chaos to start over and build a stable, hopeful future for themselves, their families and their new communities.

The New Beginnings program was designed to meet the goals of the UNHCR/International Organization for Migration/Ministers Foreign Affairs; Colombia, Ecuador Assistance Plan for Colombian Refugees (December 2010), which seeks to support priorities and pilot programs which will advance the sustainable reintegration of Colombians who decide to return home while improving the living conditions of those Colombians who continue to stay abroad.

Don Bosco City offers children a place to live, study and learn a useful trade to help them integrate successfully into society. An important part is the sporting program, which provides soccer, basketball, volleyball and chess. These opportunities allow youth to play on a team and make friends—as well as gain a sense of accomplishment.

Don Bosco City’s protection program, “Making Impressions,” was established to help children understand their rights and to restore rights for those involved in child labor in the Amaga municipality. This program was created in response to social issues that have arisen from the area’s coal-based economy. Many families in the region make their living in the coal mining industry and children are often sent to work in the industry rather than attend school.

It’s not just young men and boys who are sent to work. Many young girls are also faced with labor exploitation and other abuses. Forced to work, they miss out on important opportunities for education leading them to become dependent on others while lacking the ability to take care of themselves. This puts them more at risk of abuse.

Youth in the program are able to access child rights education and use the library which serves as a quiet space for learning and studying. Participants can also take advantage of recreational spaces which help to make free time more productive and aid in building better relationships with peers.

The Youth Services Organization, located in the headquarters of Bosconia, in the Los Martires area of Bogota, was able to provide food for more than 60 children and older youth each day during March and April 2022, thanks to donor funding from Salesian Missions. The project is known as the Casa Bosconia Project.

To help carry out the nutrition project, Salesians established an agreement with Bogota’s Archdiocese Food Bank to guarantee availability of the required food products. In addition, the Casa Bosconia Project’s health and nutrition team provides an analysis of the current nutritional status of the youth to establish actions that will improve their nutritional well-being. A volunteer nutrition specialist also sets calorie and macronutrient goals for each of the age groups.