(ANS – Antananarivo – September 15, 2026) – At present, Fr. Luca Barone, President of Missioni Don Bosco, the Salesian Mission Office based at Valdocco in Turin, is traveling in Madagascar, the great “Red Island” off the east coast of Africa, so named because of the vivid color of its soil. This is a special missionary journey, undertaken together with Fr. Davide Banzato and the crew of I Viaggi del Cuore, a visit that will take them to see the projects the missionaries have been carrying out for 45 years.
The original article in Italian from “Missioni Don Bosco” is available here. The translated article into English is available below.
This journey also marks the start of the new series of I Viaggi del Cuore on Canale 5. The team is traveling to learn about, meet, and report firsthand on the Salesian initiatives that will feature in the upcoming episodes. The cameras will follow the journey through projects, villages, schools, and the stories of the people they meet, bringing the reality of the Salesian mission in Madagascar into Italian homes.
It is a journey through the works, communities, and places where, every day, missionaries support the most vulnerable young people, including countless children living on the streets. From the heart of the capital, Antananarivo, to the countryside of the brousse, from the highlands to the east coast, this missionary journey crosses a country of great contrasts and extraordinary beauty, but, above all, provides an opportunity to meet the Salesians who give a face to the mission and have chosen to stand alongside those who are most marginalized.
Here, the Salesian mission takes on its most concrete meaning: to be present. To be alongside the children going to school, the young people seeking a future, and the families living in conditions of great vulnerability. To be there where services are often far away and opportunities even scarcer.
The missionary journey includes Fianarantsoa, Antananarivo, Ivato, Tamatave on the island’s east coast, and the brousse of Betafo, where the village of Vohibe is home to a community of around 21,000 people, most of whom work in agriculture. Here, poverty and shortcomings in the education system mean that around 40 percent of children do not complete primary school.
The Salesian school, currently attended by 278 children, can no longer meet the growing demand. The classrooms are dilapidated and overcrowded, with classes of up to 65 students, few desks, and difficult conditions, particularly during the rainy season. Missioni Don Bosco aims to support a major renovation project to create a safe, welcoming, and learning-friendly school, eliminate overcrowding, and enable the school to accommodate at least 380 children.
It is precisely this project that Missioni Don Bosco will present at the Christmas Concert at the Vatican, with the goal of raising awareness of the situation in Vohibe and gathering the support needed to transform the school into a larger, safer, and more welcoming space.
This initiative is not simply about building new classrooms. It is about addressing school dropout rates and offering many children in Vohibe the opportunity to study and build a future of their own.