ASIA/KYRGYZSTAN - A new building for the Issyk Center, the holiday home for disabled and poor children

Tuesday, 19 November 2019 children   human dignity   dialogue   poverty   solidarity  

Bishkek (Agenzia Fides) - The Issyk Center, the home for disabled and poor Kyrgyz children, located on the shores of Lake Issyk-kul and managed by the religious of the Society of Jesus, will be expanded with the construction of a new building. This is what Jesuit, Fr. Anthony Corcoran, Apostolic Administrator of Kyrgyzstan reported.
"On 21 October, together with Fr. Remigiusz Kalski, director of the Center, we blessed the foundations of the new building, which will be complementary to the existing one: it will be a two-storey building, 562 square meters, which should contain an activity room and the rooms for children, volunteers and workers", says the Apostolic Administrator.
The project involves the construction of 11 rooms, 1 chapel room, 1 storage office, 11 showers and health services, all with adaptations for the disabled: "On the first floor there will be rooms for disabled children, their parents and for full-time employees. The rooms on the second floor will instead be allocated to all other children, volunteers and seasonal workers".
The activities of the Issyk Center take place mainly in the summer, when camps are set up for disabled children, orphans and the poor, often carried out in collaboration with Kyrgyz social assistance facilities. Furthermore, every year an astronomy camp is organized. Fr. Corcoran explains: "During last summer, we registered a record of one hundred and ten children who traveled to Issyk-Kul Lake to participate in our fourth annual astronomical camp. With the snow-capped peaks to the south and the warm waters of the lake to the north, the environment was idyllic". The participants were accompanied by their physics teachers and supervised by Father Adam Malinowski, a Jesuit astrology fan, as well as by volunteers from Austria, England, France and Germany.
"Our mission, in this case did not include any spiritual activity, since both students and teachers were Muslims, but this does not make the work done any less important. In the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, we Christians are called to commit ourselves and to assist all of God's children. Meetings such as the field of astronomy are opportunities to express God's love for every person, spending time with non-Christians, helping at the same time to present a positive picture of us Catholics to people who may never have met one", concludes the Apostolic Administrator, explaining all the possible pre-evangelization activities in that context. (LF) (Agenzia Fides, 19/11/2019)


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