"Moments of Group work are a fundamental element of the Days of Spirituality," emphasized Fr Joan Lluis Playà, the delegate of the Rector Major for the Salesian Family. "They are an opportunity to meet, to get to know each other, exchange experiences and above all to be charismatically enriched. The radical recipients of Don Bosco's dream are young people, and thus the reflection on it is aimed at setting up and monitoring the service dedicated to them. This was done involving the young people themselves in a creative and proactive manner. It is not by chance that the image that the Saint left to his children envisages "lambs" that become "shepherds!" The constant dynamism of the Oratory experience is that the "wolves" gathered and welcomed with love become shepherds themselves. They begin thus to incarnate the new life in Jesus, become its "testimonial" in the eyes of the other young people, and face their animative task with a competence that derives from their experience - the frontiers of educational action.
This is the case, for example, in Ecuador, where in forty years more than 2,500 young people have been sent on mission in various Salesian communities and those of other congregations in the country. The role of the volunteers is to help the realities in which they are inserted, such as the small communities scattered in the mountains or in the forests. Here, the condition of young people is particularly delicate due to the constant tension between staying in the villages and the attraction of the big cities… In the constant confrontation between the preservation of their environments and their ethnic groups in the face of modernization and the expansion of other cultures. The Ecuadorian Salesian Missionary Volunteer Program is a joint venture of three groups: the Salesians of Don Bosco, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The Volunteer Program is entrusted to the personal skills, physical and intellectual abilities of the young participants. It is not just a matter of 'animation' tasks, but of true accompaniment in the care and formation of children and young people in situations of risk and vulnerability, and the proclamation of the Word of God through catechesis.
From Spain an experience of the Don Bosco Project Foundation, which was set up by the Buzzetti Project for young people aged between 18 and 29 who are in a situation of social disadvantage and risk was shared. The problem was that of young people, entrusted to Juvenile Protection and Justice Centres, who, when they come of age, find themselves without a home to welcome them and resources to live on. This program which completes 15 years of its functioning in 2024, has evolved and provides hospitality and educative presence to about a hundred young people through 22 well protected apartments and the program has already received important recognitions various agencies such as the Association for Human Rights of Andalusia (Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía). The project started in a town in the south of Spain, at Jaén, and from there has spread throughout the region and even to the Canary Islands, enjoying international patronage in some of their branches.
Chean is a frequent name in Cambodia, and the surname Samnang is also quite common there. A prominent football player and an actor, for example, are called by that name. A young man bearing the same name bore his testimony to the gathering thus: "As a boy I had no hope! But today I have become who I am today, because I had the right skills to work in society". Chea Samnang, one of the many boys who had difficulty finding his way and career, has been transformed by Don Bosco's dream. Thanks to the foundation that bears the Saint's name, there are thousands of boys and girls in Cambodia have today a future instead of bleakness. Almost 4,000 attend the basic training pre-courses, which already assures them of a meal. The 'spiced up rice' is perhaps an initial attraction for children from poor families. But then, it is the spirit and will power of these young people which really gets “spiced up!” The Technical training school offers specializations that are compatible with the reality of Phon Phen, the capital, and the other towns where the students will be able to present themselves to employers with an attractive qualification and certificate leading to employment. Chean has already found his niche with a major car manufacturer.
After this, the participants of the program moved on to focus on Latin America -to El Salvador. Here the highlight was an internet and digitally enabled entity called Essales which encompasses synodality and impregnates people's daily lives with the strength of the Salesian charism. Here, Salesians and Salesian Sisters have devised a program to combat the woes of young people affected by migration and heavily armed violence. It does it via spiritual formation directed at those who care for children and young people. "The aim is to strengthen the spirit of these animators of educational and spiritual action", as Sr Ana Beatriz Solito FMA explains.
In imitation of the little Johnny Bosco, who was a tightrope walker and juggler in the Castelnuovo countryside who later turned a priest on the outskirts of Turin, the next experience to the Salesian Family days arrived from Trapani, Sicily (a region in southern Italy). A young 'magician' who goes by the fictional stage name Gascar whose real name is Rita Sofia, is in reality a consecrated member of the Witnesses of the Risen movement. For more than fifteen years she has been bringing the message of equality and human rights, to audiences not only in Italy, but also to Madagascar, where Salesian missions are active in favour of a very poor population. "Over there, magic does not exist! And what seems inexplicable is just a game," explains the performer, who is also a student of Mago Sales (a non-profit organization, founded in 2001, inspired by the methodology of Don Bosco and promotes solidarity with the poor children of Salesian missions in the world founded by Fr Silvio Mantelli). "With my shows I intend to get to communicate that it is giving which is the real magic." She shows magic tricks that enchant and make people 'dream', while bringing concrete solidarity thousands of kilometres away.
Topping this testimony, there was finally the Salesian family circle with performances in the evening by many of the participating groups. The event included the guitar performance by Fr Ángel Fernandez Ártime and concluded featuring popular songs and dances by Mexicans.
