3.        To know the needs

We can go about this work of finding needs within each of our establishments, but also outside them, case by case, in order to bring adapted answers (for example, search out the youngsters who do not eat in the morning or at midday; those who arrive tired in the morning because they work before class or late in the evening; those who are responsible for the family; those who carry burdens which are too heavy to speak about…).

It is, though, equally proper to draw up a state of the more general areas of needs of young people within each of the Districts, in the form of a report. Such a locating is written into the logic of proposal 14 already quoted: “to identify the violations of the rights of the child in the immediate locality”. The proposal speaks in terms of violation, but to start with it may be easier to speak in terms of locating needs.

In this respect it can be stated that the Australian lasallians have worked remarkably for 12 years with the telephone line Kids/Help Line which is open 24 hours a day: 80 operators receive 30,000 calls a week from all over the continent!