AMERICA/ARGENTINA - Solidarity Campaign promoted by the PMS for the victims of the volcanic ash

Buenos Aires (Agenzia Fides) - Every year the national secretariats of the four Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) gather in the region of Patagonia-Comahue with PMS Diocesan Directors to evaluate and propose lines of action for the following year. This year the leaders of the Child and Adolescent Mission (IAM) have raised the sad situation many communities adherent to the IAM live in because of volcanic ash: the situation of despair and poverty have involved many people who live in areas affected by the eruption of the volcano Puyehue for many months, children and families are mostly affected.
According to the statement on behalf of the National PMS Office in Argentina, a copy of which was sent to Agenzia Fides and signed by the national director, Father Osvaldo Leone, and the National Secretary of the IAM, Sister Marcela Davies, the idea of a national campaign, in the vicinity of Christmas, has been proposed, addressed to all children who wish to join by sending a drawing with a message that encourages many children, adolescents, children, elders and families who are going through this painful time, of which media does not even talk about.
The ash from the volcanic complex, in Chile, Puyehue-Cordón Caulle, continues to cause hardship to the population living in villages in the inner part of Argentina. The first wave of this disaster appeared in the month of June, but in recent days, the situation has become even more complex because of the weather and winds. It may seem a paradox, but on the side of Chile, there are large green areas and from the Argentine side, everything is covered by ashes, as if it had snowed, and a huge amount of ash continues to fall abundant enough to paralyze almost all activities of the central part of the country. Even the country's new president, Cristina Fernandez, has had to postpone for this reason a visit to the central province of Santa Fe. The statement of the PMS ends with an invitation so that everyone joins the campaign to help the nation and to help make the country more united, fraternal and missionary. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 14/11/2011)