Hajja Salesjana Apr-June 2019

30 H AJJA S ALESJANA My dear readers of the Salesian Bulletin , I greet you warmly again and, this time, with special joy on account of what I want to share with you. During the past Christmas Season, which has just recently ended, one of the members of the General Council, the one for the Missions, was able to spend Christmas in two very significant presences of ours in Uganda. In one of these, there is a large group of children whom we have rescued from the streets and who live in our Salesian House. The second is our refugee camp in Palabek, Uganda, where we arrived on January 31, 2018, just a year ago, and just months after the first refugees had arrived there. It was at that moment that we decided that we SDB ought to be there, among them, and share life with those people who today number 42,000 – and the number is still growing. Our General Councilor for the Missions, Don Guillermo Basañes, and I met during the first days of the New Year 2019 and he gave me two envelopes. One comes from Kampala, Uganda, from the educational project “Children and Life Mission,” and the other from the Palabek refugee camp. Inside each envelope, there was a brief message. The children rescued from the streets and THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR DON ÁNGEL FERNÁNDEZ ARTIME living in Don Bosco Boys Home, together with some churches in their neighborhood, took up a collection to send to me. They asked me to use it for the poorest people whom I meet around the world (as if they themselves are not poor!). Inside, I found $100, the fruit of the generosity and sacrifice of these people and these boys. The other envelope was just like the first. That one came, as I said above, from the refugee camp. The people there practically have no money, and generally barter with food and animals, etc. For example, some raise half a dozen chicks, allow them to fatten up a bit, and then exchange them for other foodstuffs. This gives them just enough to survive; but when asked to give help to those who are poor, hundreds and hundreds of persons got going and took up a huge collection. They sold some chicks for coins and then added to that amount what they were able to collect at the various Masses celebrated under the open sky and trees (which serves as their church building now). I opened the envelope with great emotion and found $25 and two coins therein (one of 100 shillings; the other of 200 shillings) with a note asking me to give this money to those who need it most. I was alone in my office at the time and was unable to contain my emotions. FOR 125 DOLLARS MORE THE MOST SPLENDID AND PRECIOUS MONEY I HAVE EVER SEEN Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash.com