“Hope for a better life”: Street Children in Salesian Programs in Ghana, South Sudan

The youth at the center established in 2003 receive a range of support to help them recover from their life on the streets and “prepare for a brighter future”, SDB officials say. 

They say that the youth at the center benefit from daily education where they learn reading, writing, comprehension, and simple mathematics. The youth receive “a hot lunch in the afternoon,” the Salesians say.

SDB members are also rehabilitating street children at Don Bosco Kuajok in the Catholic Diocese of Wau in South Sudan. 

They say the training facility that started three years ago “on land barely fit for agricultural use” is now “a thriving Salesian community with a primary school that educates 300 children and employs nine teachers.”

“There is also a program that offers addiction treatment and rehabilitation for street children who are roaming the market in the center of Kuajok. An oratory opens each day and provides for those in distant parts of Kuajok, who are most often internally displaced people,” SDB officials say.

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They say that about 150 children who benefited from the rehabilitation program since its inception in 2019 have returned to their families and that some of the children have started school.

“The program has expanded over three years to also include a Salesian house with volunteer rooms and a medical dispensary. Salesians are able to drive people to the town hospital in cases of emergency,” the Salesian officials say.

Silas Mwale Isenjia is a Kenyan journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communication from Moi University in Kenya. Silas has vast experience in the Media production industry. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.