austraLasia #2233


A further WYD followup - from Pakistan

FAISALABAD (near there, anyway): 19th August 2008 -- Intermittent follow-up trickles in from the World Youth Day in Sydney last month.  Here is an interesting one from Irfan from a small Catholic village some 25-30 kms from Faisalabad in the Punjab.  Amongst other things Irfan has the following to say:
    "Here in our village we have a very energetic youth group.  One of our village priests formed this group in 1999 and he gave it the name 'Friends of Don Bosco'...We have 40 young boys aged between 15-30 and a managing board for help and guiding.  I am president of this youth group.  I am very much interested in doing some work for the betterment of our youth in Pakistan.  Meanwhile I would like to share that in Pakistan we are considered a minority and being a minority we have to face discrimination by the majority of the country at every place of life.
    I have participated in much youth training, capacity building training and human rights training in and outside of Pakistan. Recently I was in Australia to attend World Youth Day 2008. My main purpose was to contact the SDB community, to connect our group with the SDBs and become more and more strong.
    We also have arranged activities such as sports festivals, interfaith and harmony programs, training and seminars.  We do not have a veyr big setup but living in a Muslim country,m we are doing a great job.  We also provide our group members, village students, financial assistance so they can continue their studies and become educated".
    Irfan concludes with the information that he is in contact with several other Salesians in various parts of the world.

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Title: australasia 2233
Subject and key words: SDB General. WYD followup.
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2233