How did the Don Bosco School of Arts and Crafts (Escuela de Oficios Don Bosco - EODB) arise and in what context?
The school was founded 50 years ago, after the owners of the land on which it stands decided to donate it to the Daughters of the Nativity of Mary (HNM), expressing their wish that they would do some activity there that could contribute to the growth of the neighborhood teenagers. Its first name, in fact, was “Banneux School of Arts and Crafts”.
With the passage of time, and with the increase in the number of students, the economic maintenance of the proposal becomes increasingly difficult for the female institute. Around the 1980s, in a process of discernment of the Institute, the possibility was seen of offering this work to the Salesians who arrived in the area in those years. And after an experience of joint leadership to concretely discern God's will, in 1990 the Salesians took up the school as part of their Provincial Project, linking it to the activities of the Tacurú Movement.
The Salesian charism and the imprint that the school already had, given by the Daughters of the Nativity of Mary, continue to animate the educational project even today.
What is the school's situation today? Who is it accompanying? And in which direction is it going?
Today the school is a very important educational project in the neighborhood, due to its history and its significance for the families of the area. It has a student population of around 200 adolescents and a proposal geared towards a global vision of adolescent growth.
In its growth processes, moreover, in addition to the stipulation of agreements for its financial support, the school has also achieved the possibility of an acknowledgment for which the adolescents who complete our Project, adding to it the one-year formation at the University of Labour of Uruguay, can obtain the Diploma of the Basic Cycle of the Secondary School. We started this in 2010, with 8 students, and now 50 students access this accreditation every year.
How do you see this neighborhood?
The school is located in a significant area of the neighborhood and has the wealth of working, for years, in a network with other organizations in the zone. This generates mutual enrichment and the school makes its contribution to building environmental care and the culture of peaceful coexistence ... There are many good and troubled families who seek the best for their children. I hope they can find dignified work, which is undoubtedly what they need to have the neighborhood grow.
Source: Salesianos Uruguay
