SEOUL: 11 January 2011 -- 48 young volunteers
and Salesian leaders left Seoul on 9 January for Poipet,
Cambodia, for the 2011 winter volunteer team activity. The
departure followed a Mass celebrated at the Provincial House
in Seoul by Fr Stephen Nam, Provincial. The team will
receive hospitality at Don Bosco Technical School at Poipet
until 23 January.
Students who have taken part in volunteer
meetings throughout the whole of Korea have the chance of
applying for the Salesian overseas volunteer initiative.
They range in age and status from middle school to high
school (ages 14-20), and must offer their usual winter
vacation period as well as self-funding their trip, a cost
of some $ 2,000.
The current group is the 19th such team,
and is being led by Fr Isidor Hong, the Director of the DB
Youth Centre in Seoul and Missions Delegate. He is being
assisted by two other Salesians and a Salesian Sister, Fr
John Jeon, in charge of youth volunteer activities and
Brother Kim Albert, a young Salesian theology student from
Seoul. Sr. Laura Yeo is the Salesian Sister. A third
Salesian has joined this year's team, as an expert. He is
Bro. Anthony Kim, working elsewhere in the Region, who will
offer a particular service of technical guidance for local
teachers in Poipet in welding.
This volunteer team will stay at the DBTS
and share their efforts and story with the local students.
Meanwhile the school has also asked that they contribute
with a large mural in the school grounds.
Preparation for the venture has been
conducted via the regular youth volunteer meetings, where
they discuss motivation and skills that can be shared. They
engage in group activities aimed at eventual cultural
exchange with local youngsters.
The departure saw a large group of
parents ready to send their youngsters off, armed with
enough personal items for the two weeks, and the essential
mosquito nets - not all that easy to purchase in Korean
mid-winter markets where temperatures might be -10 C!
Fr Nam, in his homily, told the young
volunteers that of course "volunteering doesn't mean doing
something to help the people where you are going; instead
it's a good chance for you to grow as a Christian person
through practical sharing with your global neighbours. You
need to feel and be aware that we are brothers and sisters
together, despite different language, culture, everything."
The youth volunteer team activities
abroad initiative is directed to the EAO Region in
particular, and is considered as one of the new and emerging
areas in Youth Ministry in the province. Through close
cooperation with Salesians in the Philippines, East Timor,
PNG, Thailand, Cambodia, China and Mongolia this project has
now seen 19 'editions'. The Province would like it to be
known that If there is any Salesian
community or presence which might interested in receiving a
volunteer team of the kind, they need but call on KOR for
joint planning. _________________
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