Building work on of this new African Valdocco officially started on Don Bosco’s feast day, 31 January 1987. Thanks to the commitment of so many people, today this great Salesian school offers as many as 20 different vocational courses (including mechanics, welding, electrical engineering, carpentry and joinery, cabinet-making, masonry, tailoring, aesthetics, hairdressing, etc.) to young men and women from very fragile social and family backgrounds. In its classrooms, playgrounds and workshops they find an opportunity for redemption and solid tools that can guarantee them a professional future, thanks to the many collaborations that the Salesians have established with dozens of companies throughout the country.
Currently, however, the school is experiencing difficulties in providing water for the student community: the water table in Karen's neighbourhood has subsided and most of the wells have dried up, including the one in Don Bosco Boys Town. Salesians are currently obliged to buy water outside to ensure the minimum water needs of the school: this need is beginning to weigh heavily on the financial resources of the vocational school.
Excavation work has therefore been carried out to find the deeper water, but the existing pump is not powerful enough to bring it to the surface. So, to achieve water independence, an important point of reference in the field of vocational training in Africa, they have sought help from Missioni Don Bosco, the Salesian Mission Office based in Turin. The intention is to buy a new electric pump to find water that is 320 metres deep!
To date, the project has yet to be completed, but Bro. Comino and Salesians, teachers and students at Don Bosco Boys Town are very optimistic: the collaboration developed and strengthened over the years with Missioni Don Bosco has already brought many concrete results – in terms of solidarity and development – in Kenya.
Just recently, with the support and valuable collaboration of Olympic athlete Fiona May, from 2019 alongside the Salesian Mission Office, important interventions were completed in two different Kenyan centres: in the Salesian mission at Makuyu, expenses were incurred in refurbishment of the printing workshop so strongly desired by Fr Felice Molino – another Italian missionary active in Kenya – who studied this area many years ago at Colle Don Bosco. And in Nairobi, the purchase and installation of an important system of solar panels was financed. It will ensure clean energy and offer important assistance to the running of the Salesian centre in the capital.
For more information, visit: www.missionidonbosco.org
