Giving hope to millions of youth around the globe
Giving hope to millions of youth around the globe
In Malawi, more than 50 percent of the population lives in poverty and the majority of households have women as the head of the household, according to the World Bank. Located in southeast Africa, Malawi is a landlocked country bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast and Mozambique to the east, south and west.
Agriculture is a central part of Malawi’s economy but land distribution is unequal and crops are highly vulnerable to the region’s frequent droughts. Few houses have piped water and less than one in 10 Malawians has access to electricity. Water is collected from wells or streams and most people cook over an open fire. Malawians deal with hunger and malnutrition on a daily basis. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, 45 percent of the country’s children under age 5 are stunted due to a lack of adequate nutrition. Many children also lack educational opportunities and have few options for improving their circumstances.
Salesian missionaries operate a parish and primary and secondary school, as well as facilitate technical skills training for disadvantaged youth in Nkhotakota, a town in the central region of Malawi. Over the past 20 years, the Salesian school has tripled the number of students accessing education. Today, 2,700 students attend the school.
Educating poor youth in Malawi has been an important goal for Salesian missionaries in the country. It is the primary way poor youth are able to break the cycle of poverty and have hope for a brighter future. Being able to attend school in a safe and comfortable environment is one step in ensuring youth are able to make the most of their lessons. Students who finish elementary and secondary school levels are then able to advance on to technical skills training at Salesian educational centers like Don Bosco Youth Technical Institute in Lilongwe.
The Don Bosco Youth Center campus in Lilongwe also has the Don Bosco Youth Technical Institute, which offers commercial and technical courses in fashion arts and beauty, accounting, bricklaying, motor vehicle mechanics, hospitality, and information and communications technology.
Thanks to Salesian Missions donors, the Don Bosco Youth Center in Lilongwe has been able to launch a program that offers counseling workshops, seminars and educational literature that addresses the multitude of challenges faced by youth in the region. The program focuses on life skills training and the avoidance of high-risk behavior such as substance abuse and gang participation. The project plan is to enroll 2,500 at-risk youth in this program.
The Don Bosco Youth Center hosts more than 600 youth each day from the surrounding townships of Areas 23, 24, 44, Kawale and Chilinde, among others, and has become a symbol of youth empowerment through sporting activities as well as vocational and technical education. The center conducts motivational evening talks for spiritual and moral growth and also provides leadership training for youth with the aim of equipping them with skills in leading and motivating other youth toward positive behavior and social change in their respective communities.
The Don Bosco Youth Center campus includes facilities for youth development in sporting disciplines and features a soccer pitch and courts for basketball, netball and volleyball. Also on the campus is the Don Bosco Youth Technical Institute which offers commercial and technical courses in fashion arts and beauty, accounting, bricklaying, motor vehicle mechanics, hospitality, and information and communications technology.
Don Bosco High School in Nkhotakota was able to provide clean, fresh water to its students and staff thanks to funding from Salesian Missions “Clean Water Initiative.” The funding provided was utilized to dig a borehole and install a solar pump, providing water to the school.
Don Bosco High School was launched in direct response to the need for education for youth in the southwestern part of Nkhotakota. The school has 378 students across four grades educated by 20 teachers. More than half of the students are from the local community, but the school does board 160 students.
The biggest challenge the school faced was the chronic lack of regular water supply for both boarding and day students. Although the school is near a large lake and connected to the town water source, there were still acute water shortages every day. The town supply is very erratic and unreliable. This caused problems for students including a lack of proper hygiene, a health hazard, and no water for cooking and drinking. The new borehole and water pump ensure a fresh supply of water to the school.
Salesian Missions coordinated and shipped a container of donated school desks, chairs, shelves, books, computers, trade tools and other school and household supplies to a Salesian school in Lilongwe. The donation was prompted by Brother Robert Malusa, a Salesian missionary living and working in Malawi, who wished to start a library for students at the Salesian school.
The donations came from Salesian parishes and programs in the United States. Br. Robert’s former parish in Long Island, NY organized a book drive and many of his friends purchased additional books on his wish list to include in the shipment. Mary Help of Christians Academy in New Jersey donated school desks and chairs and computers and additional books were donated by Saints John and Paul Parish in Larchmont, NY.
The donation of desks and chairs was shared with Don Bosco Youth Technical Institute in Lilongwe, one of the largest private colleges in Malawi and home to more than 600 students and 30 staff. Courses are offered in a wide variety of subjects including accounting, automobile mechanics, construction, electrical engineering, hospitality management, information and communication technology, and fashion, art and beauty. Prior to the donation, students had to use preschool desks from the primary school next to the Institute.
From Malawi
From Malawi
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Salesian Missions includes agriculture in its vocational training programs – to ensure that youth of Rwanda learn better agricultural practices as well as keep the school self-sustaining in the face of the country’s food shortages.
Salesian Missions includes agriculture in its vocational training programs – to ensure that youth of Rwanda learn better agricultural practices as well as keep the school self-sustaining in the face of the country’s food shortages.
Salesian Missions includes agriculture in its vocational training programs – to ensure that youth of Rwanda learn better agricultural practices as well as keep the school self-sustaining in the face of the country’s food shortages.