ECUADOR: Youth Hope to "Bet on the Future" Through Education in Ecuador
Community members in Esmeraldas, Ecuador are waging that a quality educational alternative will help improve primary school graduation rates. Currently, only half of the population of 400,000 has graduated from primary school, and 76 percent are unable to meet their basic needs. The "Bet on the Future" campaign (Apuestan por su futuro in Spanish) is a community-based effort that aims to remodel and maintain school reinforcement centers, strengthen infrastructure and obtain resources to provide extra educational support to children who may be struggling with their studies in traditional schools.
UGANDA: Book Donation Opens Students' Eyes to New Opportunities
Nearly 2,000 students in four Ugandan primary schools are exploring the worlds of geography, science and music thanks to new donated books?the result of a partnership with Salesian Missions and World Vision (who received the donated books from Pearson).
HAITI: Opening of Salesian Technical School to Provide Skills, Jobs to 2,000 Students
Two thousand youth in Fort- Libert?, Haiti, will receive training for guaranteed work placement with the opening of the new Don Bosco Technical School. On May 7, 2012, Haiti's president, Michel Joseph Martelly, its education minister, R?ginald Paul, and other government representatives marked the opening of the new Salesian school with a special ceremony.
INDIA: Salesian Students Advocate for 2015 Millennium Development Goals ? and Beyond
As nearly 60 experts came together to discuss how to ensure the Millennium Development Goals are achieved and advanced past 2015, children in India were already taking action. Among the youth were students from Salesian institutions.
SRI LANKA: Giving Child Soldiers an Escape Route, Helping Girl Soldiers Overcome Trauma
Childhood should be a time of innocence and schooling. But that's not the reality for youth in Sri Lanka being recruited to fight the country's civil war. For these youth, it's weapons and war rather than school books and play.
Stop Hunger Now Meals Reach Haiti Thanks to Salesian Missions Partnership
In April, 2012, meals from Stop Hunger Now made their way to children in need in Haiti, thanks to a partnership with Salesian Missions. The meals were utilized by the Lakay program for street children where the Salesians feed more than 600 youth every day in Cit? Soleil, the poorest slum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This indispensable Salesian-run center provides shelter, education and food to hundreds of street children with nowhere else to turn. The facility was completely destroyed by the earthquake, leaving the children without shelter.
SIERRA LEONE: New Child Hotline Offers Hope to Children Affected by Civil War
The potential to help nearly 4,000 children made homeless due to the aftermath of Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war is behind the launch of a new, 24-hour telephone counseling hotline.
WORLD WATER DAY: Salesian Missions Highlights Programs that Provide Safe Water, Agriculture Training
The international community celebrated World Water Day on March 22, which is recognized annually as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. World Water Day 2012 was coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
GLOBAL: International Food Aid Necessary in New Farm Bill, Says Alliance for Global Food Security
The Alliance for Global Food Security, in which Salesian Missions is a member, is urging Congress to reauthorize international food assistance programs when it writes a new U.S. Farm Bill this year. (The last Farm Bill was written in 2008.)
HAITI: Salesian Missions Researches Possible Agriculture Education, School Feeding Project
Hendrix Pineda, a program officer with the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs, recently returned from Haiti where he was exploring a possible food-for-development project to be funded under Title II of the Farm Bill managed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project would focus on agriculture education and diversification, water and sanitation, and school feeding.