![\"ANS-interview-juan-carlos-montenegro\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/salesianbulletin.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/ans-interview-juan-carlos-montenegro.jpg?resize=720%2C411&ssl=1\")
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(ANS – Bellflower)\u00a0– Juan Carlos Montenegro is a past pupil of the Don Bosco Kennedy Salesian Technical Institute in Quito, Ecuador. From his years in the Salesian school he felt that his life “should not be a meaningless life.” As a student, he decided to go as a volunteer among the native Achuar people in Wasakentsa. “It was an experience that changed my life forever,” he says.<\/p>\n
I believe that my vocation began in the family. My parents were an example. A second reason was the opening of a Salesian school that taught me to help the needy as a Salesian volunteer.<\/p>\n
My first experience was in Wasakentsa. Then at the age of 25 I was invited to work in the St Dominic Savio parish in Bellflower, California, in charge of youth ministry. In 2007 I took the position of Manager of the Salesian Provincial Volunteer Program and continued my missionary experiences.<\/p>\n
A survey was conducted among 428 former volunteers from 28 countries around the world. In this research, we realized that a missionary experience changes your life. 93% of the former volunteers surveyed believe that the volunteer experience has helped them and has changed their lives.<\/p>\n
I think it is accompaniment. If a volunteer feels accompanied he or she grows as a person. The accompaniment requires not only processes, but also particular moments like being attentive, listening, having personal meetings and praying together.<\/p>\n
The study shows that for 52% of former volunteers the most difficult time is when the volunteer period is over and they must return to “normal life.” After living with poverty, coming back home causes a shock that is not easy to accept.<\/p>\n
Certainly. There are young people who want to give themselves, to share their lives. We just need to give them a proposal and a way. How much good we could do to so many young people who are wandering the world without meaning! But I also want to stress that it is important that the identity of Salesian voluntary service be well defined.<\/p>\n
Our research shows that there are three benefits: self-knowledge; knowledge of different contexts and knowing how to interact with people; and then the most important one: being open to a relationship with God! These three gifts are irreplaceable for the rest of one\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
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By ANS (ANS – Bellflower)\u00a0– Juan Carlos Montenegro is a past pupil of the Don Bosco Kennedy Salesian Technical Institute in Quito, Ecuador. From his years in the Salesian school he felt that his life “should not be a meaningless life.” As a student, he decided to go as a volunteer among the native Achuar people in Wasakentsa. “It was an experience that changed my … Continuar leyendo Volunteering: A Risk Today, An Opportunity for the Future<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10336596,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[831,20310044,516714022],"tags":[35842],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-province-news","category-salesian-world-news","tag-volunteers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59ePG-2I","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10336596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions\/192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}