The "Salesiana de Barinas" Center, as it is known in the area, is an institution that works to form good Christians and honest citizens. It uncovers the value of work and the professional abilities required in the humble and creative commitment of the Venezuelan farmer.
The center began as an agricultural school in Naguanagua, in the state of Carabobo, which has been active since 1934, and moved to the western plains of Barinas in 1984. The center has been present for over eighty years amidst Venezuelan camps with hundreds of students in Agricultural Studies who have graduated, and continue to sow the future and hope in the Salesian style - with optimism and joy.
The institute offers its students the art of combining theory and practice. The young students learn via hands-on approach, by doing, working and studying. Sixeen theoretical-practical courses are offered, including: Greenhouse, Growing Vegetables, Cereal Crops, Gardening, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences, Breeding, Milk, Cheese and Dairy Products ... The Salesian Institute was specifically opened to provide a technical education mainly to poor young children with scarce resources, and offer them technical-practical know-how and a future of hope.
The atmosphere of fraternal life in communion between Salesians and lay people permeating the school recalls the foundations of the Salesian Congregation where Don Bosco found his collaborators for the considerable educational work he wanted to accomplish among lay persons. It is a joint effort whose sole purpose is to save souls.
The educational community promotes associations that enrich the experience of sharing and brotherhood. There are missionary groups, ministers, active and productive young people, devotees of Mary Help of Christians ... groups that generate that activism that makes of the agricultural school a proposal of educational quality for the country.
In Barinas, Don Bosco lives sowing joy and harvesting the future.
