Madrid (Agenzia Fides) - Members of the Messengers of Peace Association, a Spanish NGO started by a Catholic priest Fr. Ángel García, have just returned from Lebanon where they distributed 15 tons of toys to children in hospitals, orphanages and other unhappy situations. The toys were collected with a "A toy and a dream" campaign. Fr Ángel says "children are the most innocent victims of any war or conflict and they are the ones who suffer most and are most forgotten. Our campaign aimed at offering them a toy to help them for a moment forget the drama of the conflict and many personal tragedies."
The toys were taken to hospitals, orphanages, schools in refugee camps in the capital Beirut, and in various other parts of the country with the collaboration of the Spanish peacekeepers unit present in Lebanon. The Association Messengers of Peace has distributed toys in similar missions in El Salvador, Benin and Iraq.
When Fr. Angel returned from Lebanon on 22 July, he brought with him two five year old children in need of special medical care. "After giving out toys and dreams thanks to the generosity of the Spanish people, - said Fr. Ángel - we have come home with another dream: to help two children to smile and play and run again". One of the children, Alí, had both legs and part of one arm amputated because of a rare disease. It has not yet been proven but the disease may have been caused by chemical elements in weapons used in the conflict in Lebanon last Summer. His case will be examined in Spain with the hope that with leg replacements and rehabilitation Ali will walk again and regain the use of his arm. The other child is Ammina, who has a rare case of blood circulation deficiency. Both children, accompanied by their mothers, will receive treatment at hospitals in Madrid. In the past five years the Association has brought more than 500 children from Iraq and others from Latin American countries to Spain for medical treatment.
OCEANIA/PAPUA NEW GUINEA - The Catholic community mobilises for children and adolescents excluded from school system
Port Moresby (Agenzia Fides) -Papua New Guinea where many children in have no access to school, the local Catholic community seeks to provide instruction for children of various ages to open the way to a better future.
In Papua New Guinea poverty and unemployment produces spreading juvenile delinquency, a source of concern for experts, civil authorities and religious leaders. People in Port Moresby, Lae, Mt Hagen, are fearful as gangs of youths known as 'raskols' rage through the streets.
In a bid to offer young people an opportunity to leave behind a life of crime and start a new life, missionaries opened schools, oratories and professional training schools. Besides education and technical training the missionaries teach moral values as a sound basis on which to build life. 70% of the schools in the PNG are run by Christians.
The missionary communities include the Salesian Fathers present in Papua New Guinea since 1980 with schools and training centres. To extend the mission of human and Christian instruction to reach more young people recently the Don Bosco Technical College in Port Moresby opened a Friends of Don Bosco group of benefactors who believe in the Don Bosco educational project. The school is now trying to involve former pupils and students and all people of good will to sustain its project to provide education for children excluded from the school system, to prepare them to be “good Christians, honest citizens and animators”.
The population of Papua New Guinea is 66% Christian (of these 22% are Catholic).
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 23/7/2007 righe 26 parole 270)
