EUROPE/SPAIN – Salesians of Don Bosco demand the right to education: “Key to changing people’s lives”
Thursday, 12 September 2024
SDB
Madrid (Agenzia Fides) – “Access to education is the key to changing people’s lives and transforming and developing societies,” is the motto of the Salesians of Don Bosco, who have always been at the forefront of education.
On the occasion of International Literacy Day, which is celebrated every year on September 8, alarming data has been released. More than 765 million people in the world cannot read or write, two thirds of them are women.
Thanks to the Salesians of Don Bosco, more than 2.3 million children and young people receive an education in the missions and find protection and safety in one of the 4,800 institutions, sometimes in difficult situations, such as armed conflicts or refugee or displaced persons camps. “In these situations, education is all the more important because it is the only way of not tearing children away from their childhood,” explain the missionaries in a statement published on World Literacy Day. Poverty, conflict and displacement are reasons that keep minors and young people away from school, while education is a fundamental tool for protecting children, especially in emergency situations. Schools are places where they receive education, food, medical or psychological care, a place where boys and girls can be, where they can live in peace and forget for a few hours the horrors of war or violence.
According to Misiones Salesianas, 25% of the world’s minors live in countries affected by some form of humanitarian crisis: Syria, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Haiti, Sudan and Palestine. The Salesian Congregation, committed to the promotion, protection, education and evangelization of the most vulnerable children and young people, calls for a real commitment to quality education for all boys, girls and young people in all circumstances.
Education is a right and empowers people. Literacy is the first step on the path to education and training that enables one to master life, be critical and be freer.
(AP) (Fides 12/9/2024)
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