India – 25 November 2016 - Violence against Dalits (the "outcasts" or "untouchables") in India has increased in recent years, according to official data of the National Crime Record Board (NCRB) released in recent months. Dalit women are doubly discriminated against, by sex and social status. In Tamil Nadu, the Salesians have been fighting for years alongside the marginalized, especially children and Dalit women. Now they have designed an initiative which aims to help women acquire tools that can improve self-esteem and skills. The project involves 1200 women from 45 villages, in which the Salesians intend to organize 120 self-help groups over two years.
More information on: http://www.missionidonbosco.org/
Nairobi, Kenya – 24 November 2016 - Fr Américo Chaquisse, Councillor for the Africa-Madagascar Region, concluded the Extraordinary Visitation to the Province of East Africa (AFE) begun on 1 August. During the final conference Fr Chaquisse urged AFE Salesians to remember the original vision and the work of the missionaries who brought the charism of Don Bosco to East Africa and asked them to meet the challenges and reach out to the poor and marginalized. Fr Gianni Rolandi, Provincial, thanked Fr Chaquisse for his four-month presence in the Province.
Turin, Italy – 9 November 2016 - Following the preparation of the Valdocco project (entitled “To Welcome and Celebrate”) the animation team of the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians has completed a first course in planning and formation with a meeting on understanding the spaces of the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians from a contemporary point of view. The speaker was Professor Leonardo Della Noce from Holland. The course was attended by Salesians, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, members of the Salesian Family and lay collaborators. The meeting arose from the need to make Valdocco more accessible to the young people of today who are genuinely searching, sometimes unknowingly, for the presence of God. There is still a pastoral concern to continue to accompany visitors to the holy places of the Salesian charism in a gradual process of dialogue, increasingly in tune with the culture of our time.
Parañaque, Philippines - November 2016 - On 14 November, Fr Ivo Coelho, Councillor General for Formation, visited the Formation House of the Salesian Brothers of the East Asia-Oceania Region.
San Salvador, El Salvador - November 2016 - On 19 November, in the parish of Mary Help of Christians, Fr Alejandro Hernández, Provincial of Central America, presided at the Eucharist during which six Salesians of the Province of Central America made their perpetual profession. They were Guillermo Ernesto Escobar Castillo, José Ramiro Aguirre López, Raúl Ernesto Cisneros Jorge, Marcelo Benjamín Navarrete Alfaro, Neri Alejandro Paniagua Ramírez e Josué Saborío Arias.
Vatican, Vatican City – November 2016 - During the audience yesterday, 23 November, Pope Francis, said: "Many children suffer from lack of education. This is a great injustice that affects the very dignity of the person. We have a long list of saints at different times who brought education to the most disadvantaged. Think of Don Bosco, St John Bosco, with those street children, and with the oratory and then with schools and workshops, preparing them for work. These pioneers of education restored the dignity of so many people."