The members of the Planetary Light-Network of Argentina develop different voluntary tasks of internal attunement and active service.  They do so in communities with various types of needs throughout the country.

Recently, one of the Light-Network Groups of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires organized “The Party of the Kite” on the occasion of  “Children’s Day” for the soup kitchen  Los Gurises, located in the town of San Francisco Solano.

After several months of pandemic and being unable to carry out these tasks with the children in person, the reunion was terrific. The volunteers shared games, riddles, songs, piñatas, sack races, activities filled with smiles, healthy joy, fun, and lots of love. They also shared food, sweets, and toys.

During that beautiful sunny morning, the dancing kites and windmills were seen in the neighborhood. Surely these touched the hearts of the children and of all the neighbors who attended the activities. Some neighbors were participants and others spectators.

Fraternity, union, and joy were the main reason for this fraternal celebration.

Soup kitchen Los Gurises: brief story and background

Rede-Luz Planetária da Argentina,

In the neighborhood of Los Eucaliptos and bordering the stream Las Piedras, in the town of Francisco Solano, is located the soup kitchen Los Gurises. Elsa owns and runs the place.

She is a retired lady who created the soup kitchen in her home many years ago. Later, she moved it to a hut on a piece of land in front of her house.  In time,  the floods caused by the creek destroyed it.

Thanks to donations of construction materials, in 2009, they renovated the building. The objective was to provide the children with a fixed place to have lunch every day and recreational activities. It also might protect children from the floods. Those were very tough years, but the soup kitchen became the center of help and shelter for the children and families.

Over 100 children of all ages attend the soup kitchen, and it provides support to their families. Elsa’s efforts and donations from groups of volunteers and collaborators sustain all this work.

Music as a way of service. Smiles and games as a language of healing and support.

It has been almost 20 years since one of the groups of the Light-Network of Argentina has been assisting the soup kitchen Los Gurises. It is a beautiful story, a story with its own melody. The Choir group of Buenos Aires has maintained this task throughout time, through meetings organized to share music, activities with musical instruments, and physical expression.

Bringing joy and peace, generating smiles, creating in each meeting a different space is the objective. A space for support and affection, where we have talks with the children and their families, and they build healthy bonds. Through love, we try to satisfy their needs. Food donations are also shared. They carry out building maintenance tasks, but above all, they keep the flame of self-respect burning in the face of adversity.

 Maria Cristina, a volunteer of the Light-Network of Argentina, told us: “what motivates me to go to the soup kitchen is to feel the needs these children are undergoing, being able to show them that there is another reality, bringing them a little light, a little seed of hope… bringing them love, a lot of love, which is, besides so many other things, what they need the most to get ahead”.

 The Kite Festival organized by the Choir group of Buenos Aires was a celebration of life. It was a celebration of the fact of “being together again” after all these months of pandemic. The Light-Network of Argentina thanks all those volunteers who participate in this and so many other service tasks.