After a moment of sharing and catch up, Juan Carlos Montenegro presented some inputs from his doctoral thesis of 2019 “Volunteering for development cooperation: A laboratory for personal transformation” underlining some challenges for the SMV regarding the receiving communities. Among the 438 ex-volunteers interviewed in the survey, coming from 28 different countries and serving in 63 countries between 1980 and 2015, community life was the most difficult moment for 35% of them. And among the community life, the first challenge is to live with others, then the relationship with the Salesians. Some other challenges arise, like the intergenerational gap, the cultural differences, but also the lack of training in conflict resolution. Many volunteers have never lived in community before the SMV experience and some communities are not used to living with young adults.

After the presentation, an open dialogue fostered the sharing and collection of feedback and personal experiences on the topic, and many rich contributions were presented. There is a strong need of accompaniment of volunteers, who are young people and not “workers”, improving the communication and with the help of specific formation for SDB communities. Formation of both volunteers and communities should include emotional support and a sense of belonging. It is important to present the realities of the Salesian mission, shared by Salesians and young people, without idealism.

In the last part of the meeting, the participants shared some suggestions and advice to deepen and address these challenges, and SMV Advisory Team collected all the inputs to facilitate the next steps.

Lastly, some news and updates: the website and database www.salesianvol.org, under the guidance of Adam Rudin, is moving forward, a draft for a booklet about SMV for the 150th anniversary of the 1st Salesian Missionary expedition was prepared and the SMV crosses for the organizations that are interested to receive them are still available.

For more info write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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