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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