Ivory Coast

As part of the Africa project launched at the beginning of the 1980s, the Salesians of Don Bosco of the Barcelona Province arrived in Côte d’Ivoire, specifically in Duékoué (a town in the west of the country). The first Salesians arrived at the request of the then Bishop of Man, Bishop Bernard Agré, and founded the first Salesian community in Côte d’Ivoire in 1981 in the Catholic mission founded in 1940 by the SMA. The Salesians run the only parish in the town and have developed other activities typical of our charism: the Vocational Training Centre, the Oratory, and the Foyer. The training courses offered to poor young people from the city and its surroundings are: general mechanics and electricity.

The second Salesian presence in the country is in Korhogo. The Salesians arrived in 1982 at the request of Bishop Auguste Nobou, of Korhogo Diocese. Fathers Luis Maria Oliveras and Juan Ochogavia, and Deacon Orlando Gonzalez, were part of the first missionary sending to Korhogo. Sometime later, François BALAUDER, Manel PUYOL, Vincent FERRI and Rafael Sabe took over. In Korhogo, the Salesians run the parish of Saint John Bosco and opened the Don Bosco School (general education), and two boarding schools for boys and girls.

The Salesian community in Abidjan is the youngest of the Salesian presences in Côte d’Ivoire. A few years after the installation of the Salesians in Duékoué and Korhogo, in 1990, Bishop Joseph Akichi offered the Salesians the possibility of working in his diocese of Grand Bassam, in the popular district of Koumassi, with a large percentage of emigrants from the sub-region, and with a strong majority of young people. The first community was founded by Fathers Luis Maria Oliveras and François Balauder, who arrived from Korhogo, and Father Enrique Franco from Barcelona. In addition to the parish of St. Francis of Assisi,

which it runs, the Salesian community has opened a Youth Centre “Village Don Bosco” and the Don Bosco’ Home (ChildProtection Centre), thus showing a clear option for evangelisation and youth.