Artesanos Don Bosco is one project in a long list of volunteer-run charitable works begun by Father Ugo de Censi.

Father Ugo is an 87-year-old priest from northern Italy who called on youth of his home country to help a youth project in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso in 1967.

After its positive impact in Brazil, the volunteer efforts extended to Bolivia, Ecuador and finally Peru where Father Ugo became the priest of a town in the central Andes.

At the same time, the volunteer movement expanded in Italy where today there are hundreds of groups and thousands of individuals who form groups that organize work projects, to include painting, landscaping, and collecting clothes and metal for re-sale. The money earned from these efforts is sent to support the mission work in South America.

The works by Italian and Peruvian volunteers in Peru are too many to include on just one page. Here are just a few: 

• nursing school
• hospital for the poor
• home for the elderly
• homes for abandoned and orphaned children
• training institute for teachers
• seminary
• reforestation and agricultural campaigns
• mountain shelters and hostel for tourists
• hydroelectric plant and company
• potable water facilities and irrigation canals
• clinics and food distribution outlet