Rome, October 2007

To all members of the Vincentian Family:

We, members of the Vincentian Family, cannot be indifferent to the situation of poverty in the world.

These are data that make us ask questions: “The World Bank publishes the basic data on the poverty in the world today. It defines as poor those who live on an income of less than a dollar a day, estimates that there are 3,000 million poor people (almost half of the population of the world) and indicates that at present every five seconds a child dies of hunger and other related causes. It also adds that 186 million of adults and 88 million of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed, which does not prevent 184 million between 5 and 17 years old from become part of the labor market. In terms of geographical areas, the World Bank indicates that poverty is concentrated in Africa, South Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.”

The UN has declared 17 October as the International Day for the eradication of poverty. We invite you to visit the page which promotes this initiative and you will find it in various languages: www.oct.17.org.

We invite you to join the diverse initiatives that promote the awareness of the eradication of poverty in the world. Would that we could formulate on the local level a concrete commitment with the poor!

May the Lord give us the strength and courage to commit ourselves every day to the eradication of poverty around us!

We are all involved in finding solutions to poverty!

Alfredo Becerra V. CM

(Translator: Manuel Ginete, CM)