The fourth annual public collection Boj proti hladu has ended. The collected funds will alleviate poverty in Haiti.
On 12 January 2010 Haiti was struck by a strong earthquake. The island country currently also has major problems with spreading cholera. The whole world is trying to help and Slovaks are not lagging behind either. In the public collection Boj proti hladu, whose fourth annual round ended on 31 October, over 270 thousand euros were collected.
Work on the project of don Augustín Vrecko. In the foreground is volunteer Adam from Slovakia, who spent a month here.
Over a million euros in four years
Even before the devastating earthquake, poverty and hunger in Haiti were a motivation for great solidarity among Slovaks. During the three previous rounds, the net proceeds of the collection amounted to a respectable 784 574 euros. This means that over all four rounds of the collection the Vincentská rodina has already collected over a million euros to alleviate the poverty of Haitians.
The main campaign of the collection always takes place around the feasts of St. Vincent and St. Thérèse of Lisieux during September and October. Volunteers throughout Slovakia offer gingerbread hearts, through the purchase of which the general public can contribute to the collection. It was also possible to contribute by direct transfer or by a donor SMS message.
The organisers also focus on events in parishes. In churches they screen photographs and present the missionary works in Haiti. An inseparable part of the collection are also prayers, in which the faithful unite in intentions for the blessing of the island country. This year too, at the very end of the activities, they set 26 November as a Day of Thanksgiving for the blessing of the collection. The public collection will continue with a fifth round as well. The active campaign next year will take place from 15 September to 9 October 2011.
The project that the missionary don Vrecko calls „Sowing Hope". In a small garden behind the pastoral centre he introduced novelties: terraces, compost, hoeing and watering. The Haitians will harvest the crop twice a year.
Directly in Haiti
The main purpose of the collection is to help the hungry, suffering and illiterate people in Haiti. The collected funds have already been sent to specific projects carried out predominantly by the Spoločnosť dcér kresťanskej lásky sv. Vincenta de Paul, which operates several facilities in Haiti – for example orphanages, health centres and nutrition centres. The aim is to use the proceeds to support specific smaller projects that will lead the most destitute towards self-reliance
Part of the collected funds was also sent to support the project of the Slovak missionary, the Salesian Augustín Vrecko. „The collection Boj proti hladu is a great encouragement for me and a warm expression of trust," he writes in an e-mail that he sent to the organisers from Haiti. „I will really strive to ensure that this help is effectively invested in the fight against hunger, that is to say, in the production of agricultural crops," he continued. The missionary plans to build an access road to the fields of the local people so that they can grow crops more efficiently.
More information about the collection: https://www.bojprotihladu.sk
Don Vrecko celebrates holy mass in the common room of the pastoral centre.
The Vincentská rodina na Slovensku brings together the following organisations: Národné združenie Spolkov kresťanskej lásky sv. Vincenta de Paul na Slovensku, Združenie mariánskej mládeže (ZMM), Spolok sv. Vincenta de Paul na Slovensku, Misijná spoločnosť sv. Vincenta de Paul na Slovensku (lazaristi), Spoločnosť dcér kresťanskej lásky sv. Vincenta de Paul (vincentky), Kongregácia Milosrdných sestier sv. Vincenta (satmárky), Rodina Nepoškvrnenej, Združenie zázračnej medajly and Depaul Slovensko.
Sisters from the Spoločnosť dcér kresťanskej lásky sv. Vincenta de Paul during their missionary work in an orphanage in Haiti.
