Intensive Training to Benefit Poor Youngsters

Intensive Training to Benefit Poor Youngsters

(ANS - Vien Kham, Laos – April 25) – Laos is a country characterized by a rapidly growing economy, based mainly on investments from neighboring countries, and a very young population. For some years now, it has also become a territory where the spiritual sons of Don Bosco are active. The Salesians now intend to increase their educational offer to help the poorest young people thru a new vocational training course.

On May 24, 2004, under the auspices of Mary Help of Christians, 5 past pupils of the Salesian vocational training schools of Thailand, a teacher, and Fr. Tito Pedron – an Italian Salesian with over 40 years of missionary service in Thailand – rented a house to start the Laos Project. They started with 12 students; the year later, there were 24. When the inspectors sent by the Ministry of Labor visited, they were very impressed by the teachers’ professionalism and the students’ level of learning.

Given that the country has a Communist government, the Salesians, while enjoying the esteem of the authorities for their work in the field of formation, cannot spread the Gospel. But they can spread Don Bosco’s Preventive System thru education.

Therefore, and always with the aim of providing local youths with more opportunities for the future, the Don Bosco Center in Vientiane, the capital, has decided to carry out a project in cooperation with the Youth Union (the Laotian Communist Party’s youth organization) of Vientiane and Vien Kham, the rural site of the initiative. Don Bosco will offer an intensive vocational course to train mechanics specializing in servicing motorcycles.

“Here, where the most popular means of transport is the moped or scooter, it’s certainly a winning choice from an occupational point of view,” commented Fr. Patrizio Maccioni, SDB, also an Italian Salesian with decades as a missionary in the Thai Province, to which the work in Laos is attached. 

The course, of brief duration, will be attended by 25 youths, selected from among the poorest in the area, due to their not being able to take longer courses in more distant cities. Many will also be hosted in a boarding school. In this organizational phase, they are also trying to raise funds to support the expenses related to food, accommodation, and training of future students.

Further information is available at: www.missionidonbosco.org