austraLasia
1411
City Hall Daejon,
Korea awards Salesian Society with major city project for needy
youth
DAEJON: 27th January 2006 -- City
Hall, Daejon. A city of 6 million people, though not the largest of South
Korea's cities. Yesterday the city authorities announced that the Salesian
Society was the successful bidder, amongst five others, to take up the city's
project for poor youngsters - an after school program. It will be called,
in English translation, Don Bosco Academy. Essentially it will take
in young students who, deprived of family assistance because families are out
working all day, have little to eat and nowhere to go once school is over.
There are at least 2,000 high school students in this condition immediately in
the vicinity of the Salesian community.
According to the
Salesian facilitator for the project, Fr Marcello Baek, who has just completed
his term as novice master, DB Academy will open at the beginning of March, which
is the beginning of the school year in Korea. During the briefing at City
Hall on 26th January, the Salesian project was introduced in terms of the
traditional Salesian Oratory, offering an wholistic approach to youth involving
study, playground and group activities amongst other
things.
The Salesian bid was based on the availability of
the Youth Centre in Daejon, open 24 hours a day since 1993 and serving public
school youth with 'humanity building programmes', and during holidays, Catholic
youth in particular for retreat and school camp programmes. A decision for
part of this plant, by PC2004, was to transform it into services for poorer
youth in need.
Daejon community, in existence since 1992,
has the novitiate, youth centre just mentioned, and group homes, a family-style
environment for needy kids. There is the Oratory, and a reformatory
apostolate carried out in the city.
The news of the
successful bid has arrived just as 6 novices made their first profession, and 7
new ones began with their new novice master, Fr Stephen
Yang.
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