Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 12 April 2011Last weekend (8th to 10th April) 52 youth gathered at the Mbagala Spiritual Centre for a weekend retreat that I was privileged to animate together with Mr Prosper Dionis. Prosper has been my faithful companion in several training programmes and retreats since the year 2000. The retreat, that is part of the annual programme of the Chuo Cha Maisha programme, was organised by the Don Bosco Youth Educational Services (DBYES-Tanzania) that I had lauched in 2005. Chuo Cha Maisha programme is a Christian lifeskills training programme run by DBYES-TZ in the Archdiocese of Dar es Salaam. Every year the programme reaches out to about 300 youth from 6 to 7 parishes; it runs from July to May every year with 20 days of training. The training is offered by a voluntary youth group: Don Bosco Youth for Youth. In May this year, the 6th batch will graduate.
The annual retreat, that used to be a 5-day programme, has now been reduced to a weekend event due to financial constraints. During the retreat the leaders from the groups of Chuo Cha Maisha are taken through Silence, Awareness, and Prayer (SAP) so as to be spiritually empowered to lead their groups after the official training comes to an end. The retreat is financially supported in part by Fr Peter Kaiser, OFM Cap (the Director of the Mbagala Spiritual Centre) who was impressed by the silence of the 80 youth who participated in the first retreat of 2006. Most of the other support comes from the Africa Group in Darmsheim and Dagersheim Parish in South Germany.
During the retreat of the last weekend I was happy to talk to some youth who had been there for some of the previous retreats. We thank God that these retreats have transformed their lives