The documentary tells the story of the lives of many children in Santo Domingo who are forced to work on the street every day to contribute to family sustenance. To date, 340,000 children in the Dominican Republic are forced to work, victims of a culture that normalises this practice and does not consider it harmful to children's rights.
After the screening, a round table was held with some of the leading characters in the documentary. Fr Juan Linares, the Salesian missionary who began the "Canillitas con Don Bosco" work, recounted his experience in Santo Domingo, which began 38 years ago, and spoke of the great work of raising awareness over the years with institutions and families so that they recognised child labour as a scourge of society.
"When I started, there were more than 500,000 underage children working here in the Dominican Republic" the missionary said. Today we are down to 340,000. The numbers are impressive. We have done a lot, this is true, but the number of young people who still do not attend school but have to work is still too high. Every day we go through the streets of the city to approach these young people and present them with an opportunity: to change the present to build a future."
The direct testimony of young Moisés was touching. Putting it simply, he said, “I have worked in the streets of Santo Domingo as a shoe shiner since I was 9 years old, now I am 14. Every day I brought my box with the necessary materials to work, up and down the busiest streets of the city so that I could work and earn a little more. Now I go to school, I am in fifth class, I have learned to read and write and I dream of being an artist or a lawyer. But what I want more than anything else is for other children like me, other Canillitas to have the same opportunities as me, I want them to no longer be forced to work but to be able to go to school just like I am doing now."
"Canillitas con Don Bosco" is the name of the Salesian project that helps many children engaged in informal work (young people called, in fact, canillitas) to "dream without chains", as is the name of the campaign dedicated to them by Misiones Salesianas. Thanks to the activities of this project, thousands of children can finally be free to choose who to become, because just as the Pope said to young people during the World Youth Day in Lisbon: "Therefore, have the courage to replace fears with dreams. Replace your doubts with dreams: do not remain hostage to your fears, but set about working to realize your goals!”
With the "Canillitas con Don Bosco" project, the Salesians are committed to ensuring that the way is paved for even the most disadvantaged children of Santo Domingo to dream without fear.
Among the guests present in the room during the screening, mention should also be made of the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the Holy See who thanked the Salesians for the important work they do in the country, the Ambassador of Belgium, very impressed by the story and the documentary, and Fr Giuseppe Costa, Co-spokesman of the Salesian Congregation.
