Rome (Italy). In June and July 2025, at the end of the MissioLab course coordinated by the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the Salesians of Don Bosco of Central Italy, some young people had a missionary experience in Albania or Egypt. Sister Ilaria Fara, FMA of the Saint John Bosco Province (IRO,) recounts what was achieved through the testimonies of the young people:
This year too, as for four years now, the course of Missionary Animation ended with some summer experiences. The MissioLab course, which unites the territory of Central Italy, has included varied experiences in different Countries in recent years. We have tried to embrace the idea of Mission proposed by Evangelii Gaudium, with the particular focus on considering not only what is traditionally understood as mission land, but also the closest and not so obvious lands. For this reason, we have reached places in Italy and Europe, with the addition of more ‘traditional’ destinations such as Ethiopia, Benin, and Egypt.
This year, two groups of young people between 18 and 25 years of age left in June for Albania, at the FMA Community Blessed Laura Vicuña of Tale, of Our Lady of Good Counsel Province (IMR) and in July at the Salesians of the Saint Mark Evangelist Community of Alexandria in Egypt, of Jesus Adolescent Province (MOR), with whom they shared their lives and prayer.
The young people discovered new cultures and the history of the host countries; they dealt with different religions and traditions. The experience was for them a moment of personal growth ‘mixed’ by the will to “be useful” to others. As is always experienced on these occasions, what you receive is much more than what you try to give.
At Tale in Albania the young women, who lived the experience of the oratory and summer activities, write, “We lived daily life together with the FMA, all the moments of prayer, lunches, dinners, and many moments of leisure, which allowed us to know a little piece of each of them and to make ourselves known in turn. In these three weeks, the gruver, i.e. the summer camp, took place. The pastoral theme was, “let’s free values” (te lirojme vlerat). In fact, every day the children had to guess a value, which metaphorically was behind a door that they opened with a key to free it. At Tale, we found children with a great desire to have fun and participate in every proposed activity, who never held back from games and activities, and with a great need for carefreeness and feeling like children. Having only the oratory as a time of leisure, they even arrived an hour before the start time, almost always alone, by bike or on foot.“
The group got to know the mission carried out during the year and the history of the country, “the streets and houses close to the Salesian work, to see with our own eyes the reality we were in. It was a village where people live with what they have, who earn their living by working at all times and making even the youngest children work, usually on the beaches, traveling kilometers and kilometers to sell corn on the cob, sunflower seeds or fruit. We visited many nearby villages such as Lezhë, Rilë, and Shënkoll. But also, more distant places, such as the former prison of the communist regime, which has now returned to being a monastery of the Poor Clare nuns. They told us pieces of history and part of their experience during the regime, where there was no personal freedom and every religion was suppressed, Catholics in particular were persecuted and tortured… We also visited inmates of the Shënkoll psychiatric prison. We found in them so much suffering and loneliness, but also a great need to be welcomed, listened to, and looked at without judgment.”
In Egypt, the young people engaged both in the summer activities of the oratory and in the Salesian school:
We left with worries and insecurities, but full of enthusiasm and curiosity, ready to be overwhelmed by what was waiting for us. Our project was not limited to animation in the afternoon oratory, on the contrary, most of our energies were allocated to the intensive Italian course.
It is designed to prepare children for the selection that will allow them to be admitted to the professional training school – mechanics or electricians – of Don Bosco in Alessandria. We mainly held two roles: four of us prepared and held the lectures with the help of local interpreters, i.e. former students of the school itself. The others instead took care of the reading exercises, in which each student had the opportunity to be personally followed in practicing what they learned in class. An aspect that certainly struck us right from the start was the desire of these young people to learn, to know, to get involved. It is worth highlighting how, within this environment, both Islamic and Muslim boys live together, who respect each other.”
Experience led to mature an awareness, “this experience is teaching us much more than we are giving. Every day these youngsters, just by looking at them, can make you understand what commitment and gratitude is. Every smile received, every ‘ok, thanks professor’, after having explained to him a little understood topic in class, every sentence finally pronounced correctly, every applause from his fellow companions, every small gesture becomes a great gift.”
Thanking for these opportunities, we realize how important it is to go beyond the “borders” whatever they may be, to experience the greatness and beauty of the world and of the Salesian Charism, to learn about poverty without preconceptions or ideologies, and to commit ourselves personally, despite knowing that you are a “small drop” in the boundless sea of global needs and requirements, tools “open” to the world and its pressing needs.
