Zambia - Missionary volunteers returning home

19 July 2016

(ANS - Mansa) - What motivates young people in the bloom of youth to spend their lives, or at least some of their free time, in the service of solidarity? The answer cannot be put in words. Life itself is the answer to this question. Magdalena Sipajlo and Sofia Ruducha, volunteers from the Salesian Mission Office in Warsaw, Poland, are going back home on July 11 after a year of voluntary missionary work in Zambia. They are full of high hopes and enthusiasm, carrying in their hearts the faces of many children and young people.

Magdalena is 23 years old. She is a qualified dietitian. Sofia is 25. She did African studies at Warsaw University. In 2014 she spent three months in Ethiopia working with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA). The two young women worked together in Mansa, Zambia, with an FMA community which has a kindergarten, an elementary school, an informal school for the very poor and an oratory.

The Salesian Missions Office in Warsaw prepares future long-term volunteers (one year) and short-term volunteers (2-3 months) through a weekend training course which lasts one year. There the candidates deepen their motivation and above all get to know the charism of Don Bosco. They learn the customs of the countries where they are going to work and the characteristics of volunteer work.

After their training, each volunteer receives the missionary cross. In 2016, six volunteers will leave for a year in Zambia, Rwanda and Kazakhstan. Another twenty will go for 2-3 months to Kazakhstan, Georgia, Zambia, Uganda, Malawi, Ethiopia, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy and Madagascar. In each place they will work with children and youth in the oratories, schools and Salesian centres. They will organize computer courses, and will take care of lepers, orphans and the poor.

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ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication, the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007.

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