Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) – The Department for Youth Ministry of the Salesian Order, along with their Department for the Missions, the International Voluntary Service for Development (VIS), and the Don Bosco Network (DBN) organized a Conference for Volunteers in Africa, held January 13 to 17 in Nairobi, Kenya.
The approximately 50 participants, including organizers, Salesians, and volunteers, were welcomed at the house for spiritual exercises "Resurrection Garden" in Nairobi, the conference venue. There were several issues on the agenda. On the first day, Father Dominic Sequeira, the Congregation for Youth Ministry, highlighted the Salesian connotation of service and volunteerism. Massimo Zortea, president of VIS, the second day presented a model of sustainable human development at the base of volunteer service and its projects. The conference ended with the intervention of Fr. Stanislaw Rafalko, the Department for the Missions, dedicated to the relationship between "Volunteering and evangelization."
Among the objectives were: to reaffirm the role of youth ministry in the formation of the volunteer, offer criteria valid and effective for the reality of volunteering in Africa, identify the criteria for Salesian, ecclesial and social evaluation of volunteer work on the continent, present young Africans with the chance of significant experiences in social and missionary work, to cultivate in them an attitude of service to poor and needy, and the awareness that each one has a vocation from God. (AP) (18/1/2010 Agenzia Fides)
