Ecuador

The phenomenon of Missionary Voluntary Service

Don Bosco at Valdocco lived an experience of life with the young and with adults ready to work with him for the education and the salvation of the young. This " charismatic experience " and that of the community enlightens the Project of Voluntary Service of the Salesian Family in Ecuador.

Voluntary service in Ecuador began in the years ’68-‘70 with the arrival of volunteers of the Operation Mato Grosso (OMG), who were the first to have an experience of missionary voluntary service. In 1971 the first volunteers left from Cuenca for a period of a year for missionary service in the Vicariate of Méndez. In 1981 the experience of Voluntary Service was officially recognised as decided by the Provincial Chapter of 1980. Those responsible at first were Fr. Jaime Calero and Fr. Manuel Hidalgo. In the same year the number of volunteers was already 53, young men and women.

In 1986 the Provincial Chapter re-designed the SEPP (Salesian Educative and Pastoral Plan) in which voluntary service is presented within a broad vocational perspective. In 1989 the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians also began to accept into their houses young women volunteers and in this way a coordinated effort was begun. In 1992 the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary also joined in.

It was in 1991 that the first Ecuadorian volunteers left for Africa (Guinea - Conakry).

The development of voluntary service

In 1994 the Youth Voluntary Service Directory for Ecuador was produced.

As is clear from this short historical account, the original decision of the Province regarding youth missionary voluntary service gave a strong impetus to this experience of youth evangelisation for our young men and women.

Some of the Salesians who worked as those responsible for Salesian youth voluntary service created in their communities a real and proper "voluntary service culture " making this experience one of the most significant in the Province. Nowadays it is unimaginable to think of a Salesian community without the volunteers. Many young people in fact, motivated by the experience of the others, make this choice, and the communities organise the community plan of life counting each year on the presence of volunteers in the community, and welcoming them in the house for a year, and accompanying their formation process before and after the missionary experience. The young volunteers are involved in the life and in the mission of the community: prayers, days of recollections, daily life, outings, meetings etc., but above all they are involved in the activities and the support of the poor (street children, missions in the Andes and in the Amazon.)

The presence of young lay people energises the life of the communities. Their enthusiasm and their joy help temper the tensions of community relations, and are an invitation to everyone to be coherent witnesses to the Salesian charism.

During these years the communities have learned to consider the young volunteers as an integral part of the community, and not as unpaid workers or simple outsiders as lay people. On the other hand they cannot be considered as Salesians in formation. It was and it still continues to be at times complicated, for each confrere to recognise the role and the significance of the presence of the volunteers who are living in community.

These 40 years of experience therefore have marked a process which we are continuing to follow and to build up for the benefit of the many young men and women who each year we host in our community, giving us the possibility of being real educators and evangelisers of the young.

FR. Robert Garcia SDB

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In these 40 years of voluntary service there have been about 3,000 volunteers male and female who for a year have worked in various missionary works, and among these the current President of Ecuador.

Each year almost 100 volunteers leave for a year of voluntary missionary service.

Each year, after or during the missionary experience, almost 15 volunteers follow the path of the Salesian vocation and on average 5 volunteers begin the vocational process of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians or of other groups of the Salesian Family.