Nigeria already has about 230 million inhabitants and by 2050 Nigeria will become the third most populous country in the world, after India and China, with over 400 million citizens. Not only that: while in the other two countries the birth rate will be falling, in the African country it will remain high well beyond that deadline. This data translates into an exponential increase in the number of minors, for whom the responses of politics and society are insufficient.
Already now the condition of life is precarious, between lack of food, education, health... the spread of drug addictions and emigration. Missioni Don Bosco participates with the entire Salesian Congregation in the effort to address this emergency through projects that look to the future, starting from a highly challenging current situation.
In fact, there are at least 100,000 children living on the streets of Lagos, and other large cities such as Ibadan have similar proportions: it is estimated that for different reasons one in 10 children find themselves living on the street, following abandonment by the family.
In recent years, the Salesians have strengthened child protection centres and established new reception facilities. Under the project direction of Fr Jorge Crisafulli, an Argentine Salesian missionary with long years of experience in sub-Saharan Africa and today Superior of the young St Artemides Zatti Province of Africa Nigeria-Niger (ANN), the attention and professional skills of the Salesians were oriented towards taking in girls as well.
They are children in street situations, in fact, who are exposed to the greatest risks: abused, isolated from society, physically and emotionally abused, given the indifference of society.
Together with Fr Antúnez, the Missioni Don Bosco Delegation includes the Director, Marco Faggioli, the editor of "Terre distane" Simona Santero and photographer Ester Negro.
With this journey of direct knowledge of Salesian operational and missionary realities and the situation on the ground for young Nigerians, Missioni Don Bosco intends to prepare itself to collaborate more and more effectively and intensively to promote projects and programs that go to the concrete and lasting benefit of young people; and it does so by reasoning in a typically Salesian perspective: that of prevention.
For more information, visit: www.missionidonbosco.org
