UB Savio Children's Home promoted as model institution
ULAAN BAATAR: 25th September 2006 -- Mongolia's
Weekly, the Millennium
Messenger, has promoted Savio Children's Home, run by the Salesian
community at Amgalang, near Ulaan Baatar, as a model for all such
institutions in Mongolia. The newspaper article included interviews
with some of the 45 children housed there, and focused both on the
background of the children and the quality and effectiveness of the
service offered by the Salesians and their many helpers. There
are
three full-time Salesians involved in the work, and many volunteers who
help either full or part-time including at least 100 foreign volunteers
(mainly from Korea) who have passed through the institution offering a
helping hand this year.
Now that the Amgalang Centre has come up to full
strength in terms
of Salesian personnel, the desire is to complete the building and to
establish stronger links with the Don Bosco technical and skills centre
in Ulaan baatar itself. Already some 23 students are commuting
daily
to UB from Amgalang by truck to continue their studies. They join
230
students who attend the city technical centre.
Savio Home is not the only such institution run by
the Salesians. A
similar institution exists now in Darkhan further to the north of the
country. The Darkhan educational centre has 87 students who daily
attend class for English and computer classes. other students
come to
enjoy the oratory experience. The Salesians have established a name for
themselves in both formal and informal education. Mongolia has
its
universities but very few institutions which respond to the needs of
skilled training, and the building industry is booming now in the urban
centres in Mongolia, requiring skilled workers.
Salesian presence in Mongolia, only 3 in number in
2001, will
jump to 10 with the arrival of Fr Paul Leung from China province.
The Salesians are now the largest male Congregation amongst the
Catholic communities in the country. Hopes for 2007 include,
besides
the completion of the Savio Children's Centre, the building of a
gymnasium at the Ulaan Bataar Don Bosco Techncial Centre and buying
and/or
building a proper Church in Darkhan.
___________________
AustraLasia
is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific.
It also
functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please
contact admin@bosconet.aust.com
Try
out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm
A separate service entirely is called F'OSSERVATORE
to help us keep abreast of trends in the digital world.
