(ANS – Bruxelles) – “Investing in all children and young people is key to achieving all aspects of sustainable development. And investing early, through multidimensional and integrated strategies, is crucial to ensure that all children over the course of their lives have the opportunity to develop, thrive and contribute to build a more cohesive, sustainable and prosperous Europe”. This is stated in a communiqué recently published by the network of agencies of the “EU Alliance for investing in Children”, which, since its birth, counts among its members Don Bosco International (DBI), the institution which favors dialogue between the Salesian Congregation and International Institutions and Organizations in Europe. Here below, the text of the communiqué:

(ANS – Pasahaur) – It has been noted that child labour in India involves about 60 million children, the so-called “hidden labourers” who in submerged economy do any type of work. Even though the Indian government guarantees free and obligatory education for all children between 6 and 14 years of age and forbids their recruitment, this problem remains one of the greatest plagues of this country.

(ANS – Rome) – Numbers and figures no longer draw our attention, because we are used to listening without seeing the faces. In each face, a story is hidden, wrote Delfina Acosta, a Paraguayan poet: “With a lamp in my hand I gazed at you, O God: and I saw on your face the weeping of a child!” Yes, this is the weeping of millions of children who have no time to play, to laugh, to sing, to share, because they were born to labour. Next Sunday, June 12th, is the “World Day against Child Labour”, while in the world about 250 million children are obliged to work and over 150 millions of them do it in dangerous and risky conditions.

(ANS - Rome) - Opening the pages of the newspapers and seeing the plight of children around the world creates a sense of hopelessness. The news is depressing for those who care about the world of children. "The child population as a whole is the subject of serious violations: abduction, sexual violence, child marriages and forced recruitment." If we stop to think, a second thought comes immediately. What is happening? How can we tolerate such suffering? Indifference has globalized, said Pope Francis, becoming a "selfish attitude of indifference that has achieved a global dimension."

(ANS - Juba) - South Sudan is losing its forests. Several decades of war, during which the country's environment was ignored, and the subsequent problems with independence and tensions with Sudan, have led to environmental degradation, caused in large part by rampant deforestation. To counter this the children of the Don Bosco primary school at Gumbo in Juba planted more than 815 trees between 18 and 19 May. These are children who have come to the school after leaving other regions of the country with their families. The ultimate goal is to plant 3,000 trees in the school compound and to give the children a love for Creation.

Lwena, Angola - May 2016 - Children who attend the Salesian School & Youth centre continue to be educated through recreational and co-curricular activities during the two-week holiday break from the regular schooling.