The last few years have been truly difficult. The numbers of this new conflict that has been oppressing the country for five years now speak for themselves: over 300,000 victims, huge refugee migrations, but above all: food is scarce. About 60% of people - a percentage that has doubled from 2014 to date - do not know where and when the next meal will come, while some areas of the country risk starvation. Malnutrition rates have reached high levels of criticality. Over 1 million children are malnourished and 250,000 risk death by starvation.
According to UNICEF data, of the 3.4 million children born in South Sudan from independence to today, as many as 2.6 million were born in a state of war: they have not known any other context than that of conflict and fear.
In this context of immense suffering, the Salesians try to help the local population as much as possible: they build schools, train teachers, promote access to treatment and medicines for those who would not have other alternatives to protect their health.
An important service is addressed to refugees and displaced persons. In Juba, for example, the Salesians have the direct management of a refugee camp where they take care of everything: from the distribution of water and food to that of clothes, from the administration of vaccines to the provision of educational opportunities.
Also operating in the country is the Opera Don Bosco Foundation, which supports the work of the Salesians with two projects: one of distance support aimed at helping children and young people in situations of extreme poverty and social hardship; and another, based on an educational development program for children and young people, brought forward through the construction of schools and teacher training.
Wherever there is a greater need for help, the Salesians do not hold back.
