Volunteer with Us
As a BOVA volunteer, you could be working in schools or orphanages passing on vital skills such as Music, Sports, Sciences and English. There are also opportunities to give pastoral care, or just to 'be there' for the children.
You will be paired with a community that needs the skills and experience you have, meaning the work you do will be of vital importance. Whatever skills you have, there will be a Salesian community that needs you! You'll also gain new skills, and have experiences that will help you grow and develop as a person and in your work.
BOVA's MISSION
Learning through action; serving the young and the poor alongside Salesian communities around the world.
In all aspects of our work there is a particular focus on providing a well-planned educational experience; stimulating, preparing and encouraging a long term involvement with development issues, faith and the Salesian Family
Latest Resources
What's On
Jubilee for Youth in Rome
28th July 2025 - 4th August 2025
On 24th December 2024, Pope Francis opened the Holy Doors of St Peter's Basilica, Archbasilica of St John Lateran, Basilica of St Mary Major, and Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, to begin the Jubilee Year, Pilgrims of Hope.
As part of the Jubilee year, in July, Catholics around the world will come together to Rome to celebrate the Jubilee of Youth, and the celebration of the Canonisation of Pier Giorgio Frassati.
For the Jubilee of Young People, the Salesians and Salesian Sisters are organising a pilgrimage to Rome.
The Pilgrimage will take place from the 28th July - 4th August and is for people aged 16 and over.
If you or someone you know might be interested in joining this pilgrimage, or if you want to know more information then email:
Sr Anne-Frances McNamee FMA: youthpastoral@salesiansisters.co.uk - 07976 058 410
or Fr Joe Tran SDB: youthministry@salesians.org.uk - 07759 879 663
Salesian Cooperators - Day of Reflection - Formby
22nd February 2025 10:30 - 17:00
The Salesian Cooperators of the GBR Province invite you to a Day of Reflection on Saturday 22nd February 2025.
This is an opportunity for people to come together as Salesian Cooperators, educators and friends of the Salesian Family, to reflect on the theme of the Jubilee Year: Pilgrims of Hope.
Venue: St Joseph's Prayer Centre, Blundell Avenue, Formby, Liverpool L37 1PH.
Arrivals from 10:30am. Departures from 5pm.
Participants should bring a packed lunch.
Suggested donation of £5, payable on the day.
A similar event was held in the Salesian community in Battersea in November. Click here to read the report of the event.
These events are open to all the Salesian Family, but enquiring Cooperators are especially encouraged to attend!
Bookings now open via the Google Form - please click HERE to book.
If you experience any difficulty with booking, or for any more information please email info@salesiancooperators.uk
VIDES - Don Bosco Day Celebrations
25th January 2025 12:30 - 15:00
VIDES will be hosting a Mass and Afternoon Tea afternoon to celebrate the feast of St John Bosco.
It is being held at the Salesian Sisters Provincial House in Blundellsands.
For more information, click the link below
Salesian Family Celebration of the Feast of St John Bosco
1st February 2025 12:00 - 13:00
On Saturday 1st February 2025, Fr Steven Lloyd SDB will be celebrating Mass at St Augustine's Catholic Church, Grovsenor Street, M15 6BW.
After the Celebration Mass, there will be an opportunity to go for lunch afterwards.
All are welcome to attend!
Fr Martin Poulsom SDB to appear on Radio Maria
22nd November 2024 17:00 - 18:00
Fr Martin Poulsom SDB has recently given an interview with St John Bosco College Students for Radio Maria England Youth.
This will air on the Radio Maria website at 5pm on Friday 22nd November.
If you're not able to tune in on Friday, it will be repeated on Sunday 24th November at 8pm.
Feast of St Luigi Guanella
24th October 2024
St Luigi Guanella was born in Italy in 1842. He was a Salesian for several years and dedicated his life to serving the poor.
As a young parish priest in the 1860s, he was especially drawn to improving the lives of the young, and his encounters with Don Bosco led him to become a Salesian in 1875. He ran the St Aloysius Oratory in Turin and took charge of adult vocations until he was recalled to the diocese by his bishop to run a hostel for the eldely poor.
He was fearless in defending the weak - young or old - against the powerful, and he founded several religious institutions including the Daughters of Saint Mary of Providence and the Servants of Charity, to work with the poor across the world. He also founded the Pious Union of St Joseph, whose first member was Pope Pius X.
Although God guided his life in another direction, he retained his devotion to Don Bosco, which can be seen in a prayer he wrote in his monthly magazine, Divine Providence, in 1908: 'May the great soul of John Bosco, who from on high protects the Congregation of his sons the Salesians, now too numerous to count, be pleased to turn his gaze on the Institutes of Divine Providence and extend the kindness of his protection on all those who belong to these works and especially on his devoted admirer and student, Fr Luigi Guanella.'
St Luigi was canonised in 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI.
His feast is celebrated on 24 October, the date of his death in 1925.
Salesian Cooperators - Residential Retreat & Celebration Weekend - Savio House, Bollington
12th July 2025 - 13th July 2025
The third of three Salesian Cooperator reflection events.
This final reflection event will be about celebrating 150 years of the Salesian Cooperators.
More information about this event will be published in early 2025
If you would like to attend then click here.
Salesian Cooperators - Day of Reflection - Glasgow
5th April 2025 10:30 - 17:00
The second of three Salesian Cooperator reflection days.
This second reflection day will take place in Glasgow and work on the theme of the 2025 Strenna
Participants are asked to bring a packed lunch, and there is a suggested donation of £5
If you would like to attend then click here.
The next day of reflection will be in July in Bollington and will also include celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Salesian Cooperators.
Salesian Cooperators - Day of Reflection - Battersea
16th November 2024 10:30 - 17:00
The first of three Salesian Cooperator reflection events.
This first reflection day will take place in Battersea and work on the theme of the Jubilee in 2025, Pilgrims of Hope.
Participants are asked to bring a packed lunch, and there is a suggested donation of £5
If you would like to attend then click here.
There are other events that will take place in 2025. In April in Glasgow, and in Bollington in July.
Feast of Blessed Ceferino Namuncura
26th August 2024
Today is the feast day of Blessed Ceferino Namuncura.
Namuncurá was born on 26 August 1886 in Chimpay, on the banks of the Rio Negro. His father Manuel, the last great cacique (leader) of the Indigenous Araucan tribes, had surrendered three years earlier to the troops of the Argentine Republic. After eleven years of life in the open countryside, Manuel Namuncurá sent Ceferino to study in Buenos
Aires, so that tomorrow he could defend his race. The family atmosphere in the Salesian college made him fall in love with Don Bosco.
The spiritual dimension grew in him and he began to desire to become a Salesian priest to evangelise his people. He chose Dominic Savio as a model, and during five years, through the extraordinary effort to enter a totally new culture, he himself became another Dominic Savio. His commitment to piety, charity, daily duties and ascetic exercise was exemplary.
This boy, who found it difficult to "get in line" or "obey the bell", gradually became a true model. As Don Bosco would have wanted, he was exact in fulfilling his duties of study and prayer. He was the referee at recreation: his word was acccpted by any schoolmates who were in disagreement. The care with which he made the sign of the cross, as if he were meditating on every word, impressed people; by his example he corrected his companions by teaching them to do it slowly and with devotion. In l903 (sixteen and a half years old, and his father was baptised at the age of eighty), Bishop Cagliero accepted him among the group of aspirants in Viedma, capital of the Apostolic Vicariate, to begin the study of Latin.
Because of his poor health, the Salesian bishop decided to take Ceferino to Italy so he could continue his studies in a more serious way and in a climate that seemed more suitable. In Italy he met Fr Rua and Pope Pius X, who blessed him with emotion. He attended school in Turin and later in the Salesian Villa Sora College in Frascati. He studied so hard to be
the second of the class.
But an illness undiagnosed at the time, perhaps because he never complained, undid him: tuberculosis. On 28 March 1905 he was taken to the Fatebenefratelli hospital on the Tiber Island in Rome. Too late. He died peacefully on 11 May. Since 1924 his mortal remains have been in his homeland, at Fortín Mercedes, where crowds of pilgrims come to
venerate him.
Declared Venerable 22 June 1972; beatified on 11 November 2007 during the pontificate of Benedict XVI
O God, who in Blessed Ceferino
has given to young people a model of holiness,
grant through his intercession,
that we too may collaborate in the coming of your kingdom
by carrying out with patience and love
the tasks of each day.
Through Our Lord Jesus Christ your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.