The Feast Day of Don Bosco, 31st January, marked the 20th Anniversary of the presence of the Don Bosco Social Centre in Tirana. The day, preceded by a series of activities involving the city’s schools, saw the participation of civil and ecclesiastical authorities, both national and international. What used to be a military bunker is now a place of education and evangelization.
At the commemoration of the Anniversary there were speeches from the Prime Minister, Hon. Sali Berisha and Education Minister Myqerem Tafaj of Albania, the Ambassador of Italy, Hon. Massimo Gaiani, Ambassador of the Republic of Poland, Hon. Marek Jeziorski, the Mayor of Tirana Lulzim Basha, UNICEF representatives, Vodafone Albania Foundation, Raiffeisen Bank, the Apostolic Nuncio from England, Mgr. Ramiro Moliner, and the Salesian Provincial of Southern Italy, Fr Pasquale Christiani. To them was given the title “Friend of Don Bosco”.
The day was cheered by children of the elementary school and high school youth (High School and Technical Institute). The students of the first year of secondary school, in particular, staged a show about the life of Don Bosco in front of parents and many inhabitants of the area.
Fr. Marek Gryn, Rector of the Salesian work in Tirana, thanked the personalities present for the support and help given over the years; thanked especially the Albanian people for having hosted and given confidence to the Salesians.
In his speech the Prime Minister recalled that twenty years earlier, what was a field full of military bunkers, is now a campus of education for children and youth from elementary school up to maturity. Expressing satisfaction with the title received “Friend of Don Bosco” he thanked the Salesians for their presence and the great work they have done during these years of transition. He said, as a witness, the commitment of the first Salesians to open a social Centre in Tirana, and in 1996, acting as President of the Republic, the inauguration of the first buildings of the Salesian Centre together with the then President of the Italian Republic Oscar Luigi Scalfaro.
The land on which the Social Centre Don Bosco now stands was a field full of bunkers, replaced later by the first temporary dwellings for the Salesians who immediately began the work of the Oratory. The activities of the Centre, which has expanded by manual work, have increased year after year while keeping the same purpose: to train and educate children, adolescents, young people and the most vulnerable, in an integrated manner, giving them ethical and cultural tools to become honest citizens and good Christians.
Thanks to the International Volunteers for Development, the Italian Cooperation, the Albanian State and other national and international organisations the Don Bosco Social Centre of Tirana today carries out the following activities: a primary and secondary school, a technical school, the High School, a vocational training centre with various courses, an Oratory Youth Centre, a day care centre which welcomes in particular Roma children, the “Casa degli Amici”, a Centre for helping young people with disabilities, and the parish church dedicated to Mary Help of Christians.