Traveling is currently almost impossible due to Corona.
This also affects young people who wanted to do a voluntary service abroad.
The Salesians initiated the “Don Bosco Volunteers Academy” for them.
Benediktbeuern
- The Salesians of Don Bosco have been involved in voluntary service for around 25 years, in which young people in institutions of the order volunteer for one year.
This is possible within Germany despite Corona.
But the young adults who wanted to do their service in Salesian projects abroad have so far not been able to travel to their destinations in Asia, Africa or Eastern Europe because of the pandemic.
For them, employees of the youth education center Action Center (AZ) in Benediktbeuern have developed the alternative offer of the “Don Bosco Volunteers Academy”.
The project recently started in the monastery.
25 young people from all over Germany take part.
One of them is Sara from Donauwörth.
She actually wanted to go to Benin in Africa on September 1st for her foreign service - which is currently impossible due to the travel restrictions.
“But I didn't want to give up my dream”, explained the 18-year-old why she decided to take part in the “Don Bosco Volunteers Academy”.
The participants initially spend three weeks in the Benediktbeuern monastery, as Niklas Gregull, advisor for international youth work at AZ, explained during a press conference to present the new offer.
As Jakob (22), another volunteer reported, participants in Benediktbeuern receive, among other things, educational knowledge in lectures, workshops and the like, talk about human rights or the topic of sustainability - because the "Sustainability Goals 2030" are the main focus of the academy.
Internships within Germany
Equipped with this knowledge, the young people then go on internships in various Salesian facilities in Germany, where they can, for example, pass on their newly acquired knowledge of climate protection to children and young people.
For example, some will work in the Don Bosco Kindergarten in the monastery village.
In between, the volunteers will keep coming to the academy in Benediktbeuern for learning units.
Both participants and supervisors hope that they may still be able to travel to their actual locations abroad.
But unlike other volunteer service providers, the Salesians made a conscious decision to offer the young people an alternative instead of canceling it altogether, emphasizes Father Stefan Stöhr, coordinator for voluntary services at the Don Bosco Salesians in Germany.
In the academy, participants should learn and experience as much new things as possible.
According to the motto: "Make a virtue out of necessity." The goal is to use the time as well as possible despite Corona.
The academy is limited to the end of February 2021 at the latest, says Gregull.
If the foreign assignments, which should actually last until September 2021, are still not possible by then, the Salesians would like to continue to accompany the young volunteers and show them alternative offers, says Stöhr.
It has not yet been determined whether the academy will remain a one-off offer or whether it will be repeated for the next volunteer.
It is possible, says Stöhr, that the academy will develop into an additional offer for future participants in the Don Bosco volunteer service abroad.
