Globailzation of Charity: Beginning the 2nd year; what can be done

On 27 September we will enter the second and last year of this campaign. The initiatives undertaken in the various countries where the Vincentian Family is present have been numerous. The members of the Commission for the Project have received dozens of these initiatives. The web site of the Vincentian Family has published some projects, which you can visit (www.famvin.org). The projects in process are very varied: breakfasts for undernourished children, help to pregnant women, meals for street-children, organization of vegetable gardens to give food to prisoners, construction of wells, kitchens, and dining halls in marginalized neighborhoods, immediate help to those ill with AIDS. The method of gathering funds goes from campaigns to raise public awareness, collections, donations and requests for help from institutions to solidarity of the Vincentian Family from one country with that of another.

All branches of the Vincentian Family on all five continents, in both rich and poor countries, are participating in this project. During this first year we can say that it has gone well, but there is still much to do!

The members of the Commission invite the confreres and all the branches of the Vincentian Family, in collaboration, to carry on with the Campaign in this second year. Many groups who gathered as a Family to celebrate the feast of St. Vincent evaluated their participation in this Campaign in order to continue with renewed energy, using diverse strategies, in the promotion of this Project of the international Vincentian Family.

What can we still do?

1. Pass from immediate action to the fight against the causes, organizing, in the institutions under our responsibility or where we have influence, study and reflection days which sensitize and commit the community to actions of solidarity; diffusing the Campaign through the mass media which are within one’s reach and forming cooperatives with the poor.

2. Developing concrete projects to present to diverse aid institutions (regional, national, and international): communitarian cultivation of the land, purchase of tools, use of practical irrigation systems, drilling of wells to extract water, raising poultry and livestock. All this is to be done with the direct participation of the poor, seeking their self-promotion and the transformation of the social reality.

Commission of the Campaign Against Hunger:

Any Rodríguez, AIC: rany@att.net.mx;
Sor Marie Yonide Midy, D.C.: ecogal9@cfdlc.org and
Benjamín Romo, C.M.: famvin@tin.it

Source: NUNTIA of the Congregation of the Mission (September, 2002