“This is our mission: announcing Christ, strengthening and deepening the faith in the youth and the people, creating a healthy environment, living the Gospel with good example and loving the young and the people”, explains Mr. Parolin.
Salesians decided to create a school on the hillside, where it is more difficult and more expensive to work the land. “We did it because we love the poor, but we were not satisfied – the Salesian adds –. We decided to organize an Agro-Mechanical section, which did not exist in the neighbouring regions. People know we do it out of love (…) the Gospel with one’s own life is already a form of evangelization, is already being missionaries”.
Every year the school hosts 210 students who have completed the senior high school and come mainly from rural areas. Half of them are directly accommodated in the Centre or in some available families.
Besides offering the young three branches (Agriculture, Agro-Mechanical and courses of plant engineering and maintenance of cooling systems), Bro. Parolin and all the Salesian community try to improve the socio-economic conditions of local families, making their land more productive. “We assist farmers in tilling the soil with agrimotors, we sow maize and soya, we provide fertilizers, seeds, and technical assistance and we buy their harvest. We try to mechanize production in order to make crops more efficient. And we practice biological agriculture”.
And to help the youth also after the school, the Salesian centre also has its own employment service. “This office keeps direct contacts with farms with which contracts of apprenticeship are signed. Our staff monthly follows the students in their place of work”, Bro. Parolin concludes.
Source: Aleteia
