On the 25th September I am planning (with two others) to reach the summit of Mont Blanc (15,700 ft) – weather depending.
Why am I doing this? …it’s an adventure, but I’m hoping that it will allow me to raise lots of money (hopefully!) for a poor community in Colombia.
Fray Jorge Luis is Lina’s great uncle (far right). He has devoted his life as a Franciscan missionary in Colombia – helping very poor communities develop in small yet significant ways such as building small schools, initiating projects for children and teenagers and bringing a sense of peace and harmony to these poor communities.
One story that stays with us is that of Lina’s grandmother sending a few dollars to help buy children’s shorts, t-shits and baseball caps to help Fray Jorge Luis set up a local children’s football team with the children he had been working with. These children had nowhere to play – no real sense of achievement but Fray Jorge Luis and his Franciscan brothers brought happiness to these children. They now get together every week to play football. NOW, this may sound so simple and perhaps insignificant, however, what is simple and insignificant for many of us it means the world to those less fortunate.Fray Jorge Luis has now been posted to a new community and this is why we ask you to help us make significant change! His parish is called San Francisco de Asis and is located in the village called Camelias – with a total population of 15,000 - with a large number of children and teenagers. Camelias is located in the mountainous region of the district of Neiva towards the Midwest of Colombia. It is a very deprived area. Houses are predominantly made of cane and clay with roofs made of zinc and with natural earth floors. Such dwelling often house as many as 8 people - including the elder parents of the family.
Fray Jorge Luis says that the main necessities which exist are: lack of employment, feeding children and the elderly and a community hall – especially where they can feed the children and the elderly. Their parish consists of organising the community, developing a social network, establishing community leaders and helping to set up small family businesses.At the moment, they feed 120 children and 80 elders. However, there is no adequate place for it so local families have volunteered their homes where children and elders take it in turns to be fed.
What we want to help with is to raise enough money to build the community hall. This will not only serve as the ‘feeding place’ but also where activities can be organised for all. The Franciscan community have been able to acquire a piece of land where the village community hall will be built. The total cost to build the community village hall is £6,300 GB – ($12,500 USD – 8,000Euros). As you can see this is a very small amount which can make the biggest difference to this community. SO PLEASE HELP US!They have identified an ideal site for the community hall, we just need to help build it for them.
The money goes straight to this project and directly to Fray Jorge Luis. We will be posting photographs of the progress on this site once we have hit our target and help them to get started.
I have set up a PayPal account which will allow the money to be transfered directly to Fray Jorge Luis and the community.
Links: http://www.franciscanos.org/ – Franciscanos in Colombia -
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