Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bethlehem (Fides Service) -A Salesian bakery in Bethlehem, which helps Palestinian families impoverished by war and absence of tourists, is marking its hundred anniversary.
Since the start of the second Intifada four years ago living conditions in Bethlehem or Beit Lehem meaning ‘the home of bread’ have grown gradually worse. Unemployment is now widespread and nearly every school has suffered some damage. According to the United Nations Organisation about 90,000 children are deprived of instruction and already in April 2001, 50% of Palestinians lived on less than 2 dollars a day.
To meet this emergency the Salesian bakery, opened one hundred years ago next to Salesian Technical School a few yards from the Church of the Nativity, started distributing free bread (1,000 of the 2,000 loaves produced every day) to some 400 poor families.
But the running expenses are high. The bakery employs four people and uses 300 kg of flour, 34 litres of fuel for a total cost of 250,00 Euro a day.
To help the Salesians continue the service a group of 300 Italian restaurants in the region have joined a ‘Taste and Solidarity campaign’ in which part of their profit goes to VIS Volontariato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo an Italian NGO which backs the Salesian initiatives.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 15/10/2004 righe 25 parole 242)
