The Don Bosco Development Office in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, has a special job placement and career center staffed by job placement officers who work to ensure that students from Salesian educational programs connect effectively with stable employment upon graduation. The center’s role in Salesian educational programs is critical to graduates’ long-term success.

In Kenya, even successful graduates often find it challenging to find employment. Many industries are located in urban areas and many of the newly employed have been forced to seek housing in city slums. Employers also often insist upon past work experience, which many Salesian graduates do not have, such as the refugees from the Kakuma refugee camp who have been unable to work because of the permit required for employment.

Salesian job placement officers work to address all of these challenges. Once a graduate is placed in a job, the job placement officer provides frequent follow-up visits to assess the graduate’s progress and to help solve any problems. More than 75 percent of Salesian graduates accessing job placement and career center services connect with meaningful work within six months of graduation.

The Salesian-run Bosco Boys program provides education and technical skills training to former street children in Nairobi and serves more than 600 boys and girls at primary and secondary schools and universities. The program also operates two nursery schools in the slums of Kariua and Kuwinda.

Youth living in Nairobi’s slums are at risk for exploitation, forced labor and other abuses. Few attend the later stages of school as compared to those living in Kenya’s more rural areas. The few schools serving this disadvantaged community are beyond the financial means of most families. The Bosco Boys program provides education and workforce development opportunities. Students in the program who complete their primary education are assisted with secondary education or are advised to choose technical training in sister institutions. The secondary education is most often provided at Don Bosco Technical Secondary School, Embu, but can also be at other schools close to students’ homes where they can be easily monitored.

As a catastrophic drought continues to worsen and spread in Kenya, the government has declared a national disaster. With livestock and agricultural crops wiped out, millions of men, women and children literally teeter on the brink of starvation. With the generous support of donors, Salesian missionaries at Don Bosco Korr continue to do what they can to assist.

According to local news reports, food prices continue to skyrocket, shooting up more than 20 percent. Having relied heavily on subsistence farming before the drought, and with few other employment opportunities available, there is literally no way for people to even purchase food.

Undeterred by these challenges, Salesian missionaries have developed a plan to improve the nutritional intake of Korr’s most vulnerable—the children—and bring clean water to the entire community. They propose to do this by drilling a new borehole equipped with a solar-powered pump in a central location and installing four new water tanks to hold the water. They also plan to install water tanks and water harvesting systems at four community schools. They will distribute fortified meals to 500 severely malnourished children daily through the Salesian-run dispensary and will provide an additional 2,815 girls and boys attending eight primary schools with lunch every day.

The Salesian-run Bosco Boys program provides education and technical skills training to former street children in Nairobi and is currently serving more than 600 boys and girls at primary and secondary schools and universities.

At Bosco Boys programs, homeless and at-risk youth join programs dedicated to creating positive change. Three centers provide services for youth at different stages. Bosco Boys Kariua runs a nursery school and weekend program where street children gather for sporting events and to wash their clothes. Bosco Boys Langata is a rehabilitation center where new boys can overcome addictions and behaviors learned on the street. Bosco Boys Kuwinda provides education and training opportunities for street children, as well as poor children from the neighborhood. At each, boys prepare for the new life ahead of them.

Kakuma refugee camp was established in 1992 near Kenya’s border with South Sudan and was a place of safety for unaccompanied minors fleeing warring factions in what was then southern Sudan. Today, Kakuma has more than 180,000 refugees, well over the 120,000-person capacity for which it was built. More than 44 percent of the refugees at the camp are from South Sudan and arrived after fleeing the country to escape conflict and violence.

Kakuma is operated by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) in collaboration with Salesian missionaries in the country, as well as several other humanitarian organizations. The camp offers refugees safety, security and life-saving services such as housing, health care, clean water and sanitation. Salesian missionaries at Kakuma refugee camp operate the Holy Cross Parish and the Don Bosco Vocational Training Center where over 1,000 young men and women are receiving critical employment and life skills. There are many courses available and those studying welding, carpentry and bricklaying often utilize their new skills to help build infrastructure within the camp. Salesian missionaries are in the process of building a new school on a donated plot of land at the refugee camp in order to meet the growing demand.

Residents in Kenya face water and sanitation shortages with 17.5 million people lacking safe water and 31.7 million lacking access to sanitation services, according to Water.org. There is only a small percentage of the country’s land that is optimal for agriculture and the year-round climate is predominantly arid. Kenya’s water shortage results in a large population of women and children spending up to one-third of their day transporting water in the hot sun from the nearest fresh water source. In addition to exposure to the elements and risk of attack by predators, women and children are also the most susceptible to water-borne diseases.

Salesian missionaries across Kenya are dedicated to ensuring that access to safe water is a priority in Salesian-run programs and schools and in the communities in which they operate. To address the need for clean, safe water, a water borehole project was completed at the Salesian-run Bosco Boys community in Nairobi. The project was made possible thanks to the generosity of donors and entailed removing all the pipes and the electric pump in an existing 250-meter borehole, cleaning the pipes, replacing rotten ones and removing a massive amount of mud. The restoration project ensures proper function of a well on the property while providing clean, safe water for students and faculty at Bosco Boys.

Salesian Missions launched an emergency fundraising effort to support missionaries assisting people affected by severe drought in Kenya. While the rain provides some water to local villages, it was not enough to help food production or to adequately help the local people. Salesian missionaries rely on donations and financial support to assist with this crisis.

In early 2017, Salesian missionaries provided food aid kits containing 11 pounds of maize, 4.5 pounds of beans and half a quart of oil to nearly 3,500 families. A total of 65 villages received food. In addition, 110 children were provided milk in the village of Lengima. One of the biggest challenges since the drought began is the lack of food available in the market; the little that is available has risen in price to the point where it’s no longer affordable. The value of livestock has also decreased and many have died or are very weak.

Salesian missionaries within the Don Bosco Mission-Korr work on a daily basis to reach the 85 villages near the mission, sometimes requiring missionaries to travel distances of more than 90 miles to reach the villages. With the recent rains, transport and communications were interrupted and some of the villages have not been able to be reached. Missionaries are waiting for additional funding for relief supplies and then will continue their aid distribution to some of these far away villages. The goal is to support 4,805 families in total.

Within the surrounding community of Korr, Salesian missionaries provide five outreach locations, a medical clinic, a nursery and primary school, boarding for both boys and girls, and a youth center, as well as a Catholic parish. Salesian missionaries provide these services as they continue to be challenged by the ongoing drought affecting regions in Kenya causing severe food and water insecurity.

In Kenya, peer education is an effective tool for reaching youth with key disease prevention messages. As part of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the “Life Choices” program focuses on abstinence and faithfulness. Gender is also an important component, including focus on sexual violence. The program extends to youth centers; schools; orphan and vulnerable children centers; and community/social outreach programs. More than 40,000 youth have learned about HIV/AIDS prevention through the program.

The Don Bosco Technical and Vocational Training Center in Makuyu has undergone much-needed renovations to improve the learning environment for students thanks to donor funding from Salesian Missions.

The funding was used to renovate student bathrooms, paint the entire center, cement and plaster exterior pillars and the interior of some classes, and replace windowpanes and frames. The next project is replacing the roofing of the center, which has asbestos.

The center offers training to youth and adults aged 13-35 to equip them with the job skills they need. The students come from the surrounding communities and often face significant poverty. The majority of students lack the tuition money to continue with their secondary or college education. Some even find it difficult to get three meals a day due to harsh economic situations.