By Judy Alvarez

On the weekend of, December 9-10, St. Dominic Savio Church hosted an appeal for Proyecto Salesiano Tijuana. Fr. Juan Carlos Solis, SDB, the project director, and Claudia Portela, the general administrator, were present to speak at all of the Sunday Masses. During the homily, Fr. Solis described the work of the Proyecto in this way: 

“The Salesian work in Tijuana currently has a community kitchen that offers approximately 700 breakfasts from Monday to Saturday for people who live on the streets, ‘discarded’ people, as our Pope Francis says, people with economic poverty, and migrants. We also have a shelter for male migrants that serves approximately 70 people. They stay there to sleep, are given three meals daily, and are offered other services. Along with the shelter for men, we have another place where we offer protection for migrant or violated women and children. We call this place, the Refuge, and it is located under San Juan Bosco’s church. There we offer women and children a house to live in and a place to eat, and we provide them with various medical and legal services. We also have an Oratory in one of the most violent neighborhoods in the city. Recently, several people have been killed around the Oratory, but we want to continue staying there to offer an oasis in the middle of the city’s jungle. Finally, we also serve another Oratory and a parish that will have health services for migrants. Along with essential services, we try to create a home environment where people feel treated as people and with dignity, as our father, Saint John Bosco, wanted.”

Proyecto Salesiano Tijuana has historically received outreach and support from our province’s various Salesian works and Salesian Family groups. At this time, the Proyecto has more need than ever for Salesian Family support due to the loss of funding and staff, which are critical to the multiple services offered to men, women, and children. The Salesian Cooperator Province Council, under the leadership of Dr. Alex Del Carmen, initiated a Tijuana Project Committee and orchestrated steps to gain donations from each Cooperator Center. Another step was to approach parishes to appeal for their assistance. To date, two parish appeals have occurred: St. Ambrose Parish in Berkeley, a former Salesian parish, and St. Dominic Savio Parish, Bellflower. The St. Ambrose appeal was prompted by Lorrie Mandoriao the local coordinator for the Salesian Cooperator Center at Salesian College Prepatory in Richmond.  She serves on the Parish Council at St. Ambrose. The appeal at St. Dominic Savio was made possible through the coordinated efforts of Howard Hammel and Armando Gonzalez, Cooperator local coordinators working with Fr. Mike Gergen, the pastor, and the Tijuana Project Committee, chaired by Judy Alvarez. The response to both appeals were remarkably generous and will be of great benefit to Proyecto Salesiano.