1 - STREET CHILDREN

AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - From Venezuela to Congo a life spent helping street children: Rev. Mario Perez director of a Children’s Home in Goma which looks after 2.000 children

Goma (Fides Service )- A life dedicated to street children first in his home country Venezuela and then in Goma, Democratic Congo. This is Salesian Father Mario Perez, who runs the only Children’s Home within a range of 400 km around Goma. “I myself grew up in a large family in the Andes where life was difficult and we had to rely on charity as the only means of survival” Father Mario told Fides. “Perhaps this is why I have always taken the plight of street children to heart. I began to care for them in my own country Venezuela. Later, when I joined the Salesians I was asked if I would go to Congo. I accepted willingly. I have been here since 1982 but it was in 1997 that the tragedy of children really exploded with civil war.”
“The children at our Home are street children, child soldiers, orphans of war or AIDS. Many were taken from under the dead body of their mother killed in the civil war during one of the countless army or rebel raids on civilians.”
War in Democratic Congo killed more than 3 million people and left millions more homeless, including children who lost their parents or were separated from the family when it fled attacks on villages. “Since 1997 we have cared for no less than 25,000 children between the ages of 1 and 18, from Congo and also Rwanda and Uganda” Father Mario told Fides. “We have helped many to find their families, but many had to be taken in by aunts or cousins because their parents were dead ”.
“At present we provide assistance for 2,000 children: 400 stay at the Home, others stay with host families in the area. For all 2,000, we provide meals, medical care and schooling. We have an elementary school and a number of training courses for adolescents so they can find work ”.
Father Mario says the children need not only material but also, and mainly, psychological care: “They are suffering from profound traumas. But here there are neither experts nor psychologists, the children help children. Our home is like a real family and love heals, love overcomes even the greatest obstacles. Many of our children cry when they leave us to return to their families because they have formed deep bonds of affection among themselves”. “The tragedy of children who have no identity is particularly serious. Some were found near their dead parents or picked up on the roads some 400 km away. In these cases it is really difficult to find out who they are or reunite them with their family ” says Father Mario. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 28/2/2004, righe 41 parole 548)
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PHOTOGRAPHS to down load free of charge

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Africa/Etiopia : Zway :

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