John Melchior Bosco was born on 16 August 1815 and died on 31 January 1888), he was popularly known as Don Bosco. While working in Turin, where the population suffered many of the ill-effects of industrialization and urbanization, he dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth. He developed teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method that became known as the Salesian Preventive System.
A follower of the spirituality and philosophy of Francis de Sales, Bosco was an ardent devotee of Mary, mother of Jesus, under the title Mary Help of Christians. He later dedicated his works to de Sales when he founded the Salesians of Don Bosco, based in Turin.[9] Together with Maria Domenica Mazzarello, he founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, a religious congregation of nuns dedicated to the care and education of poor girls.
The Salesians of Don Bosco work in 132 countries & in 93 provinces. In the Mumbai province we have 34 institutions that comprise of 22 Schools; 20 parishes; Technical institutes, both formal & non-formal; marginalised works for street children; Counselling Centres, etc.