"where the small is beautiful, the silent is powerfulthe slow is graceful, the simple is successful, the serene is joyful, the Salesian is youthful and the Song is eventful"Ariosto Coelho, 1983
About Us
1948, September 8
On behalf of Pia Sociedade Salesiana de São João Bosco and the Salesians of Don Bosco in Goa Rev. Mgr. Vincent Scuderi acquires 5 plots of of jungly and hilly terrain on the banks of the river Kushavati in scantily populated Sulcorna. This was a gift from Mr. Humberto Mascarenhas from Utorda near Margao in Goa. This gift would make it possible to offer Goan youth education in agriculture.
Our Activities
THE LAND OF RESILIENT OPTIMISM?
The Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Don Bosco Agro-Ed Complex [DBAEC] at Sulcorna on January 14, 2013 captured the warm glow of integrated growth and sustainable development through dedicated hard work. Over a period of fifty years the Salesians of Don Bosco and their collaborators not only transformed the forest into an agricultural farm but also built an educational complex with a reputable Farm High School. This for me was proof that the DBAEC is the Land of Resilient Optimism. I was able to laugh blissfully with the Risen Lord while recalling the many challenges and crosses we carried with the Crucified Savior.
That evening I accompanied Fr. Edwin Baracho, the Rector, along with Raju, an experienced supervisor at the farm, and a handful of resident students to discover the metal cross I had erected to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of Salesian Apostolate in Sulcorna before I left the Agro-Ed Complex on May 30, 1987. This six foot tall cross was placed on the peak of the mountain that separates the villages of Sulcorna from Kazur and Korla, one of the boundaries of the property gifted to the Salesians by Mr. Humberto Mascarenhas from Margao on September 8, 1948. As we abandoned the steep upward climb and retraced our steps downward through the thick forest after walking for 2 hours from the site where Fr. Moja had erected his first tent on October 20, 1962, darkness was all that we saw. A flash light app on my Iphone brightened our path as we struggled to find our way back down the half-dry river bed.
With the early rays of the sun I could hear the birds chirping melodiously while the school children from the villages around swiftly descended from their school busses on January 15, 2013. I had the privilege of greeting some of the Salesians, teachers as well as Farm workers. Mr. Prakash Naik, a resident at and a student of the Agro-Ed Complex, currently an assistant to the Farm Manager, drove me around the DBAEC in a Jeep. Mr. Naik showed me a plot of land he acquired in the Sulcorna village and informed me that he was looking forward to selling it for a reasonable price. He also drove me to the farmers' residences and introduced me to a few retired farm workers who hailed form Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra and whom I had known over twenty five years ago. Now in their sixties and seventies, many of them needed medical attention and chose to share their tragic life stories. I felt a sense of hopelessness as I listened to their misery and asked myself -what can make Sulcorna, the Land of Resilient Optimism, where "Happiness is too much"?