The Missionary Youth for Peace continues to sow a spirit of selfless group service in Argentina. Up to this point, it has organized five missionary experiences in Buenos Aires and four in Cordoba.
The Missionary Youth for Peace continues to sow a spirit of selfless group service in Argentina. Up to this point, it has organized five missionary experiences in Buenos Aires and four in Cordoba.
Enthusiasm to participate is renewed in each meeting and draws new volunteers, who according to their testimony, complete the experience with much joy and deep gratitude in their hearts for the opportunity to serve.
Ecological Action
In the last activity, developed in the province of Buenos Aires, the participants dedicated their afternoon of Saturday, February 9, to join efforts with other volunteers of the civic movement “Let’s Do It, Argentina” (Vamos a hacerlo, Argentina), to clean a stretch of the coast of the Rio de la Plata, opposite the city of San Isidro. They cleaned up solid waste such as plastics, aluminum, glass, etc.
“I was struck by the quantity of trash, but at the same time, I was very happy to see so many people, especially so many youths, from different organizations, united and super-active; I was left with a sort of feeling of hope”, commented Constanza Bibolini.
“I went through an experience of feeling myself to be very small because there was so much to clean up, that for an instant it seemed to make no sense, but we know that it does have, to demonstrate that we want something different”, affirmed Griselda Tortella, who was with a daughter and a niece.
“You know that everything is contaminated, but when you start to clean up, you begin to be fully aware of what is really happening”, said Carlos Carambia, in his turn.
On Sunday 10th, the group spent the day collaborating in the Paradise of Animals (Paraíso de los Animals), a shelter located in the district of General Rodriguez.
Conscious Eating
Some days before, between January 25 and 27, the young group from Buenos Aires experienced the fourth meeting of the Missionary Youth for Peace.
The first day, the second workshop on conscious eating was organized, which was open to all those interested, and attracted several new people. It had quite a participatory dynamics and various of those present contributed information that enriched the content of the event.
On Saturday the 26th, the group went to the “Gift of Mary Home” (Hogar Don de María) of the Missionaries of Charity, in Beccar, a northern suburb of the Greater Buenos Aires area. In this place, the nuns carry out two fronts of service: a home for women for those with physical and mental disabilities who have been abandoned, and a communal male dining room.
In the home for women, the participants provided companionship for the inmates, they helped in the cleaning, in the preparation of the food, and in various repairs around the house.
In the communal dining room, they assisted in the preparation of the food and waiting on the users, and later, one of the volunteers repaired two kitchen stoves and one heater.
On Sunday the 27th, there was a visit to the old people of the Nursing Home San Jorge, in Lanus, where they shared in the breakfast and some moderate physical activity, such as chair yoga.
The youth in Cordoba
In Cordoba, the last sessions were dedicated to the Animal Kingdom. This was done on the weekends of the 15/16 of December, 2018, and the 16/17 of February, 2019. On both occasions, the first day was at the municipal dog shelter “Revivir” (Relive), located in Villa Allende (20 Km northwest of the city of Cordoba), whereas the second was at the equine shelter Fundación “Sin Estribos”, in Río Ceballos (33 km northwest of the provincial capital).
During both events, members of the Planetary Missionary Network, of the Light-Network, of the Light-Community of the Brotherhood, and of Grace Mercy Order gathered together.
In the kennel, which has more than 200 abandoned dogs, the task consisted of cleaning and improving the existing infrastructure, weeding the entrance to the shelter, and taking the animals out for walks.
In the shelter “Sin Estribos”, a place for the rescue and rehabilitation of mistreated and abandoned horses, they cleaned out stables, collected the manure, weeded, and stored bales of straw. During the February experience, the young people deepened their contact with the animals, since for the first time they were able to take them walking to a close-by river and learned to heal some of their wounds.
For more information about the Experiences of the Missionary Youth for Peace, both in Buenos Aires and in Cordoba, the following email address can be used:
mision.humanitaria.argentina@gmail.com
