Fraternidade – International Humanitarian Federation, is organizing the Confraternity Mission, the new missionary task requested by the Divine Messengers to help the victims of the floods that affect the province of Salta, in Northern Argentina. The mission will take place from February 12 to 26.

In this region, floods and unprecedented overflowing of the Pilcomayo and Bermejo Rivers are happening, as a result of the heavy rains that are falling in Southern Bolivia, where both rivers arise. The number of those evacuated already outnumbers 10 thousand people in the whole province. Also hundreds of cattle and domestic animals were affected.

The missionaries will give assistance in Santa Victoria Este, the town that was most affected by the flood. It is a rural locality of about 10 thousand inhabitants, located at the banks of the Pilcomayo River, in the North of the province. The place is near the triple border Argentina-Bolivia-Paraguay, 500 km from Salta and 2200 km from the capital of the country, Buenos Aires.

Indigenous area

Santa Victoria Este is located in a region of a lot of poverty. Sixty percent of the population belongs to various Indigenous ethnic groups, such as the Wichis, Chorotes, Qoms, Chulupies and Quichuas, distributed in 36 communities. They live on the collection of wild fruits, on fishing and on hunting. Nevertheless, the intense deforestation and the sport hunting are reducing more and more their possibilities. The other 40 percent of the population are mestizos (mixture of whites and Indigenous people), dedicated to raising goats, sheep, pigs and cattle in a small scale.

The Pilcomayo River arises in the Bolivian highlands, at an altitude of 5,500 meters, and in its descent to the lowlands of the Chaco, attracts a great amount of sediments, about 125 million tons per year, which in the descent end up obstructing its channel in several points. Therefore, when the current floods go down, they will leave houses and streets affected by a great amount of mud and all kinds of residues.

The Confraternity Mission will gather missionaries of Fraternidade, members of the Network-of-Light groups of Argentina and volunteers. The latter will have the option of participating for shorter periods; they do not have to stay during the whole mission.

Soul joy

“The Confraternity Mission representes the expansion of the task that the Network-of-Light of Argentina conducts for the Indigenous Peoples in the Chaco Mission. It is another opportunity of healing debts of love, to the Indigenous Consciousness. This will take place in the Chaco of Salta, inhabited mainly by native communities, and at the moment that the next Chaco Mission was going to take place, which was cancelled in order to concentrate energies on this new mission”, explained Mabnel Jozami, the coordinator of the Network-of-Light of Argentina-North Region.

“I am very happy to participate. I have a joy in my soul that I cannot express in words. I was preparing myself for the Chaco Mission, then the opportunity came and I said ‘yes’, without hesitation. To me, this service is a self-emptying and filling myself with love, compassion and more joy, feeling that this expands and that we are part of a whole”, said Florencia Biancalana, a volunteer from Bahia Blanca, Argentina, who has participated in the Chaco Mission twice.

A drop of hope

“I feel a great impulse to participate. I am going without expectations, simply to offer my heart and my hands to help in whatever is necessary”, said Viviana Walsh, a volunteer from Buenos Aires, with experience in the Roraima Mission and in Chaco Mission.

“I was preparing myself to go to Roraima Mission, but this new opportunity arose. We will go with the aspiration of bringing a drop of hope, of fraternity, of love, to welcome the brother or sisters in theit difficult situation”, said Rosi Freitas, a missionary of Fraternidade, from the city of Guaruja, Brazil.

All those who feel like collaborating with the Confraternity Mission, can obtain additional information here.

You can also get in touch with the Network-of-Light of Argentina writing to argentina@fraterinternacional.org or with Fraternidade – International Humanitarian Federation, on the landline +55 (35) 3225-1233