Salesian Missionaries in Egypt Empowering Refugees Through Vocational Training

“Some medicine prescriptions are included as referrals for secondary care as needed,” the SDB officials say in the report obtained by ACI Africa.

Rimonda Nadi, a former student at the vocational training centre says that she was equipped with skills to start her own business after her course in sewing. 

“After the course, I started to buy fabrics and make baby clothes. Then I started to put my products in different clothes shops for sale,” Nadi has been quoted as saying.  

She adds that the ability to start her business “brought me extreme happiness and pride because I can finally depend on myself and start to work.”

Last year, 639 refugees were registered for technical and vocational courses at the Salessian institution, SDB leadership says in the June 20 report. 

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Meanwhile, SDB members in Uganda have, through their Institute’s U.S.-based development arm, Salesian Missions, provided food to at least 800 refugees at the Don Bosco Palabek Refugee Resettlement Camp in the East African nation.  

The Resettlement Camp that is home to about 56,000 refugees and asylum seekers was established in 2016. 

In the report, however, SDB members ministering at the Camp express concern that the distribution of food has become limited since the outbreak of COVID-19. 

“Even before COVID-19, living conditions in Palabek were not easy. Food distribution was scarce and there were difficulties in accessing drinking water,” they say, adding, “With the arrival of the pandemic, everything has become even more complicated.”

SDB members at the camp explain, “The amount of food delivered to refugees once a month has been reduced by 30 percent, and classes and activities were suspended.”

In a bid to counter food shortage at the camp, Salesians have facilitated the cultivation of “cereals, vegetables, and if possible, some cash crops such as sim sim, groundnuts and sunflower” 

“The goals are to promote kitchen gardens of vegetables and fruits, hire land from the local Ugandans, and create agreements to work together with the host community,” they say, adding that they have provided hundreds of kilos of maize, beans, sim sim, groundnuts, assorted vegetables and cassava cuttings to the communities.

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.