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Press > News Clippings 
In the Province of Buenos Aires
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 At one month of life, this Villa Lamadrid baby weighed only 2.5 kg |
Being smaller or fatter in this part of life indicates that nutrition fails, either because they lack essential nutrients or because they eat poorly.
Data compiled in a study by the Maternal and Infant Program of the provincial Ministry of Health concern Buenos Aires authorities and doctors because basically they show that there are social factors associated with an unfavorable context for the development of children. In all cases obesity, short stature, and low weight, what can be regarded as "expectable" is a level of 2.3 per cent of all cases.
In the study, which could be accessed by La Nación, a decline in severe malnutrition could be noted with respect to previous measurements. However, the fact that low weight problems remain at 2.7% of the cases under study implies almost the same registration as during the deep crisis of 2002 when this figure was 2.8 per cent.
This is an anthropometric survey conducted in state health centers on last March, on a sample of 15,618 children up to two years of age in 103 of the 134 municipalities of the province of Buenos Aires.
In 1995 and 2002, the provincial Ministry of Health had conducted equivalent surveys which were now collated to the last figures obtained by growth charts used by the World Health Organization (WHO).
In 1995, 16.2% of the children tested showed small height in 2002, this result reached 17% and is now at 14.7%. As for cases of obesity in 1995 they reached 12.4%; in 2002, they fell to 10.9% and in the present study they rose to 12.8 percent. Low weight, meanwhile affects 2.7% of children under two years, in 1995, 3.6 per cent were underweight.
The study shows that areas with the worst nutritional problems are referred to as VII and XI. The first of these, in the very heart of the metropolitan area suburban covers districts such as Tres de Febrero, Hurlingham, Ituzaingó, Moron, Merlo, and Moreno. Meanwhile, the XI is made of the provincial capital, San Vicente, Presidente Perón, Ensenada, Berisso, Cañuelas, Magdalena, Chascomús and Dolores, among others.
"We've noticed that cases of acute malnutricion have decreased, and there is a discrete improvement in growth retardation. Moreover, the upward trend in overweight goes on, this is a pandemic that affects the entire planet," La Nacion was told by Flavia Rainieri, the coordinator of the Mother and Child Program, who acknowledged that in many cases the low height and obesity could be observed on the same child. "There is a strong association and it is frequent to find concurrence of cases," she said.
"We believe the low height is a consequence and cause of poverty, the child who does not grow normally due to conditions under which it lived will in the future have trouble learning, developing, and even to enter labor world" Rainieri held.
The official added that a number of factors cause lack of anthropometric development: "On the one hand, there is no incorporation of nutrients in both quantity and quality, the succession of infection, the need to optimize prenatal controls to tackle the low birth weight at birth, and little or no breastfeeding, as well as emotional issues such as violence on the children themselves or their family environment, causing stress that stops growth." As for the obese children, genetic and food issues together with sedentarism can be mentioned.
"Interim status"
Rainieri described the situation as "intermediate" compared with what was happening in the rest of the world and noted that the levels were better than those of many Latin American countries. She said: "We need to work together on these issues in a comprehensive way," and announced that the Province was preparing the launch of a new nutritional plan that will incorporate new strategies.
"We will emphasize the promotion of breastfeeding and the reduction of tobacco during pregnancy, which causes low birth weight," she explained. According to the coordinator of the province nutrition "this will be accompanied by training of health teams."
Under the new nutrition program, the provincial Ministry of Health, in charge of Claudio Zin, will distribute 1500 height metering units donated by Unicef and 1500 scales of Plan Nacer in the primary care centers of municipalities and in community and provincial hospitals to assess the nutritional status of children.
According to official report, the plan will include the coordination of tasks with the area of Social Development in order to work on provincial food policies which will provide better nutrition for both mothers and children.
Source: La Nación
Agencia Informativa Católica Argentina - News Service - 21-NOV-2008
Buenos Aires, 21 Nov. 08 (AICA)
 Starving children |
"In 2007 an estimated 9% of urban children experienced hunger episodes" warns the report, based on responses from parents of over a thousand households in the ten largest cities in Argentina.
There are 12 million children and teenagers from 0 up to 17 years living in Argentina. Regarding educational climate and physical conditions of the closest neighborhood, in 2007, some 60.77% of them lived in vulnerable homes.
The right to housing and to a suitable environment for child development and living were also infringed ss per 53% of the children (6,360,000): 2,500,000 children lived cramped in (more than three in a room), and 1,680,000 grew up with inadequate sanitation (households with no bathroom, drinking water and water toilets).
According to the Barometer of Social Debt for Childhood Bulletin there are children who starve, live crowded with no drinking water, rearing abysmal differences with their rich peers.
In 2007, half of the children and adolescents did not have the necessary resources, appropriate to their development and social integration. Shortage of habitable conditions, restrictions on access to food and clothing, plus difficulties in access to health care, shaped impoverished life contexts, as evidenced by other significant indicators of human childhood development, such as emotional and intellectual stimulation in socialization and training" explains Ianina Tuñón, coordinator of the Barometer of the Observatory of Social Debt and Argentina Arcor Foundation.
86% of children pertaining to 10% of the poorest households show habitability problems, that is seven times the rate of the richest 10%. Infants pertaining to the 10% of the poorest households are three times more prone to not going to kindergarten. Poorest teenagers are 9 or 25 times more likely to abandon or to lag behind in the first years of elementary school and the last years of high school.
"Studies performed by the Barometer show that these deficits and inequalities tend to increase in Argentina and show that enforceable rights are infringed. We hope that these data will question all of those in charge as well as those institutions responsible for their enforcement" concluded Tuñón.
Reports: www.uca.edu.ar/observatorio
Source: AICA
La Nación newspaper, Buenos Aires - January 27, 2007 - Published in the General Information section
Poverty in Avellaneda, a serious problems in the development of children
 Elizabeth Campo Piano dwells in a room 12ftx18ft with her five children and her granddaughter; one of her daughters suffers from chronic malnutrition |
The scientific definition is different. Noelia suffers of chronic undernourishment, a condition which affects her growth and which will affect her learning capacity.
At ten minutes from the Capital's banking district, in the burough known as Isla Maciel, some other 40 children suffer this same or another type of undernourishment. Oscar Fariña, secretary of Health of the municipality of Avellaneda, the county in which the district is located.
"These children have their knowledge capability jeopardized, they are at greater risk of suffering diseases and probably their intellectual yield is lower than the normal one", explains Alexander O Donnell, director of the Study Center on Child Nutrition.
Luis Alberto Ferrero, who for nine years directed the district's emergency room, says that undernourishment on the "island" has more than a single cause. "The Riachuelo, the Dock Sud chemical pole and the condition of sewers, all seriously affect children's organisms", Ferrero says.
 Paola, Nicolás and Marina Salcedo in a house which resembles those which can be seen in the area |
In one of those streets, about halfway down a block, a corridor leading to a iron sheet house starts, which, like many other houses in the area resembles one of the multicolored houses at La Boca, however, this one sports a worn-away gray.
Upstairs, in a room about 12 feet by 18, half divided by an unfinished wall live the seven people who make up the Campo Piano family: Elizabeth, the mother; Maria Paz, the oldest daughter who also is a mother, and four other children among whom there are Noelia and Selena, who still play ball.
The youngest of the male children is César, five years of age and who had some already overcome nutrition problems. When greeting anyone arriving at his house, César greets him or her with kisses and immediately asks "Do yo eat?"
Other factors
Two blocks from there, in a house also located upstairs, lives Román González, who, with his 11 years, still has weight problems. "They are treating him in the emergency room. His problem is not caused by lack of food, but by parasites doctors told me are in his body", explains his mother, Graciela.
"Sanitary problems influence in adequate usage of food by the organization", explains Liliana Laurenti, leader of the Nutrition Service of the Foundation for Fight against Children's Neurological Diseases (Fleni).
Two blocks from where the González live, lives Oscar Ramirez, who with sporadic soldering jobs maintains his four children and his wife. "Another cost was added when the doctor advised us that because of my son's Franco weight problems we should only drink mineral water", Oscar tells us.
All these patients were treated by Fernando Murias, a pediatrist who worked for three years in the emergency room, who quit at the end of October, 2006. Some days before Murias had reported the number of undernourished children as being 85, and demanded that the Government did something on this matter. "As the municipality did not react, I resigned in order not to be an accomplice", relates Murias. The pediatrist assures that nowadays the number of undernourished children ones could arrive at 100.
Ferrero, the emergency room director, says the report had triggered a survey. "In the multidisciplinary field task which took three months, among the 85 cases he reported we could only confirm 41 cases which are now handled by the agency", Ferrero specified.
Meanwhile, Buenos Aires province Congressman Jorge Macri visited Isla Maciel last week and reported more than 120 cases of undernourishment. "It is a serious situation and municipality should undertake something", Macri complained.
Fariña thinks Macri's figure is an exaggeration. "Anyway, in the emergency room we are doing a patient follow-up. In addition, two provincial support plans were added and dining wards of the area are being stepped up", Fariña enumerates.
Nevertheless, according to two of the area´s dining wards the situation differs from what Fariña describes.
"For nine months now we did not get the monthly 500 kilos of beef they should send us. We survive thanks to donations of a cold storage houserefrigerator and by what arrives directly through the Association ", recounts Andrea Romero, one of the persons in charge of the Miguel Bru Association dining ward, which every week end serves 80 children.
Mercedes Vañasco was in charge of the De Vuelta a Casa dining ward which every week fed 250 people, "Aid was becoming scarce so we had to close up", she told.
A. Fernandez Cronenbold
Source: La NaciónInfobae - WEDNESDAY | March 8, 2006
A 13-year-old died this evening in the town of Goya in the province Corrientes as a result of advanced starvation. According to police sources now the police try to find out her place of residence in order to determine what caused this situation.
The girl had been hospitalized on Tuesday morning in the Area Hospital with visible decompensation symptoms and died some hours later due to grade four undernutrition.
As stated by the hospital's medical director Javier Churruarín, the hospital took note of the serious situation at once and every effort was made in order to recover the child, but the task was unsuccessful due to the seriousness of her situation.
The doctor could not define the reason for the girl's health situation, nor was he able to talk to the family since the mother walked away immediately after leaving the girl at the hospital.
Sanitary authorities and the police were informed at once, so the police tried to locate the girl's family but it seems they left a bogus address since up to now no family member could be located.
On admission at the Hospital the mother stated an address in a rural area near Goya without further details, so up to now it was impossible to contact the family.
The authorities are concerned about knowing the reasons which caused the child to arrive at this extreme condition and wonder if there are other children of the same family at risk.
FUENTE: INFOBAE.COM)
| Ambitoweb.com | Thursday, October 20, 2005, Edition #1816 |
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| Argentina and world information |
Section: Title page
According to the last report on anemia of the Dirección Nacional de Salud Materno Infantil Juvenil (the Argentina National Maternal Infantile and Juvenile Health Authority) «the average Argentine diet is rich in iron as a result of the high meat consumption. However, for children meat consumption is belated and scarce, and for many women it can be low, as a result of the family income level». Official population studies show that in different areas of the country about 22% to 66% of children under the age of 2 years suffer of anemia, and the most worrying fact is that this has not changed over the last 15 years. The Chaco is one of the areas most affected by malnutrition, which affects more than 66% of the children under the age of 2 years, whereas this ratio is 48.3% in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires.
Alvino says that the chronic delay of Argentina is a result of damaged intellect of the population. «The biggest wealth of a country is his human capital and if it is damaged the chance of growth in a nearby future is diluted, consequently resulting in more underdevelopment».
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Agencia Informativa Católica Argentina - News Service - 10/02/05
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“Many of these situations demand an immediate answer, but not with the immediacy of flares. The search for answers and their implementations which are not a mere botch-up cannot cause us to forget that we need a change of heart and of mentality that make us value and dignify the life of these children since they were conceived until they rest in the bosom of Father God, and to do each day consequently”, he remarked.
In a “Letter for Childhood”, that was read to the young people who journeyed to Luján, the Buenos Aires cardinal –who was absent because he is in Rome participating at the Synod of Bishops on Eucharist- urged “to go deep into the heart of God and to start to listen to the voice of the weakest, these children and adolescents, and to recall the words of the Lord: ‘See that you don't despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my heavenly Father’ ”.
 The Felices los Niños Foundation was present |
After declaring his “worry and sorrow by this situation”, on the way of the Archdiocesan Assembly cardinal Bergoglio asked “that our eyes don't grow accustomed to this new city landscape whose principal performers are the children”.
“I ask you to open our hearts to this painful reality -he repeated-. Today's Herods have many different faces but the reality is the same: children are killed, their smile is killed, hope is killed. They are cannon fodder. Let's have a renewed look at our city's children, and let us dare to cry. Let's look at Our Lady and let us tell her through the weeping of our heart, “Mother, teach us to care for Life”.
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“It is not just a matter of passing laws -he warned- but of adequately complying with them by means of effective management in a framework of redistribution of riches and job creation”.
He also considered it necessary to “develop programs for school access and ongoing school attendance, with the commitment of teachers, families, and the children themselves”; “quickly implementing Government policies meant for the development of scarce resource families”.
The Archbishop asked all rulers, those who stear the city of Buenos Aires as well as those belonging to the opposition “to make up a plan in order to abolish all practices of child labor as well as any other exploitation of childhood”, and to “quickly” agree on policies applied to public education, so that “teachers who get wages according to their needscould be able to spend all their time instructing, teaching and motivating minors so the latter may discover life's essential values.
“Thus teaching will find again the essencial principles of its very existence”, he remarked.
The cardinal also demanded “application of a systematized health protection plan for low income families, so children can get medical care from the very moment of their conception in their mother's womb, and later going on as they grow and develop”.
“A society which is proud of itself cannot ignore those values which lead to Man's fulfillment by his full development. And among these values, the religious dimension must be emphasized. Man is God's image, called towards communion with Him.”
At last, cardinal Bergoglio remarked “the policies which have been implemented up to this date resulted in severe damage to both life extremes, those populated by the most helpless people of our society, that is, children and old people”, and he demanded “not to postpone the fulfillment of these debts, the day and time is now or never”.
Infobae - September 7, 2005
Every hour 1,200 children die as a result of lack of resources. The UNO asks governments to start taking measures needed to tackle this problem.
According to the annual report on human development published by the United Nations Organization (UNO) every three seconds a poor child dies somewhere on the planet. This means that every hour 1,200 chilren lose their lives as a result of the lack of resources.
Kevin Watkins, who headed this research, pointed out how important it is for governments all over the world to start taking immediate measures in order to stop this trend.
Furthermore, next year morality rates could increase and 41M children could be put in peril to life if the goals set up to reduce child mortality are not met.
According to the UNO report 50 countries registered deterioration in matters of human development. This fact results in the millenium goals of the international organization are far from being met.
The paper emphasizes the growing inequality in Latin America as a negative factor.
In order for South America to catch up with rich countries, if the latter stopped growing, only in the year 2177 they would be on equal terms, according to BBC World.
Source: Infobae.com
INFOBAE.COM - August 21, 2005
As stated by forensic sources of Campana county in the province of Buenos Aires where it was found to be deceased, an 11 month infant suffering from chronic malnutrition died today on a bus on which its mother was taking it from the province of Formosa to Buenos Aires in order to get medical care.
The baby, identified as Fabricio Cisneros, was taken for medical treatment at Juan Garrahan Children's Hospital, as told to Telam news agency by District Attorney Juan José Maraggi, in charge of the agency investigating the case, the Unidad Funcional de Investigaciones (UFI) 2 of the Zárate-Campana area.
Since the age of three months the child had been assisted at the Mother and Child's Hospital in Formosa's capital, where it was diagnosed malnutrition and retarded maturing.
Its mother, Valeria Alejandra Barreiro, aged 27, who is mother of another four children, cohabitates with the infant's father in the borough of Antenor Gauna in the city of Formosa.
Doctors in Formosa suggested taking the child to Garrahan hospital in Buenos Aires, and the mother postponed travelling until the personnel strikes at this health center seemed to be settled, so they started the journey yesterday at 5 p.m., said DA Maraggi.
Mother and child travelled by a Pulqui bus, and as they arrived this morning at the Campana city stop the infant didn't move and the mother could not get it to wake up, so a doctor who happened to travel on the same bus examined the child and found it to have died.
The body was taken to Campana City Hospital where a doctor found the child to be undernourished, with a weight of just three kilograms, against the nine or ten kilograms which are normal at that age.
According to the medical report the DA pointed out that the infant had just one of the four teeth a child should have at the age of 11 months, and that the malnutrition was chronical.
According to the autopsy death was the result of an acute cardiopathy, and the child's stomach was empty. In its bowels there was some mash of old age, and no filaments acting on digestion could be found, since they had atrophied due to lack of use.
Maraggi ponted out that in order to establish responsibilities about this decease the investigation will be spread out to Formosa in order to find out about its clinical records and the situation in which the child lived, although according to the mother she had the child frequently examined at both the hospital and at first aid stations.
SOURCE: INFOBAE.COM)
La Nación newspaper, Buenos Aires - May 9, 2005 - Published in the General Information section
A seemingly unstoppable process. Surprising UNICEF and Argentina Department of Labor data
Since 1998, when according to estimates some 250,000 children were at work, growth has been exponential and unstoppable. Today child work reaches 1,500,000 minors of 15 years or less according to estimates of UNICEF and of the National Commission for the Eradication of the Child Work (CONAETI). This is an increase of some 600 percent over seven years.
There are some 3500 children on the street just in the city of Buenos Aires. About one half, 49%, spend their time asking for money and begging, one of the forms of urban child work.
Almost 50% of those on the streets of Buenos Aires range between 10 and 15 years of age, and are more boys than girls (56% against 44%). They go to work, exposing themselves to situations that put their psychic and physical health at risk, they assume adult responsibilities, they drop out of school thus losing a chance of escaping from poverty which pushes them to the street. One thing carries to another, the circle grows difficult to cut and, as specialists agree, their own children will repeat the story.
In fact, some 40 percent of the children no longer go to school and the same number attend now and then, according to research done by the City Council for Children and Teens. "Little by little they drop out of school. They miss school one day, then another and another more, until at last they do not attend school anymore -said José Manuel Grima, coordinator of the Program for the Eradication of Child Work of the City Council-. Many of them, as they have no money to commute home, stay in the city to sleep and little by little they drop out." 31% of them sleeps on the street.
Most of them would like to go back to school, which for them is a reference place, a place of containment where they meet their friends. But they are not able to do so because they need to go with their parents who lack someone with whom to leave them, or they must get money in order to help ther parents. Some 95 percent of them live in the metropolitan area although they work in the city (mainly in the city center, and in the boroughs of Pompeya, Palermo and Constitución). They are aware that they would have no success in their own areas, that resources can be found in Buenos Aires.
How do they spend the money they get? 80.5 percent is spent on food, building goods needed to improve theur homes, and school material. According to them the balance is spent, in this order, on medicines, entertainment, booze and drugs (mainly glue and pasta base, unprocessed cocaine), family business, commuting expenses, cigarettes and diapers.
Child work is not an offense in itself, but it is accepted that the working child is a victim which should be government assisted. It becomes a criminal offense when children are exploited or subject to servitude, explained María Elena Naddeo, Head of the Buenos Aires City Council for Children and Teens.
The crisis, which resulted in disruption and during the last years sped up impoverishment, made many people grow accustumed to the sight of children at work -warned Grupo Sophia's María Eugenia Vidal-, therefore running the risk of tolerating this state of things as a part of the new social reality.
As stated above, exploitation or subjection to servitude is a crime. But it is a crime which is hard to prove, said Naddeo: "one must show that children are manipulated in order to get a profit. Last year we had the case of a group of small sisters who worked in Constitución who were sent to work by their parents, and if they didn't comply they were battered by them. This is liable to prosecution. The case of children who help at home because they live in a situation of extreme poverty having no other way to subsist is different. In this case we need to help the entire family so that these children get off the street and go back to school".
This way it is complicated to define the limits and outreach of child work, even more so in a country in which 63.4% of the children live in poor homes, according to the figures of INDEC, the National Census and Statistics Bureau. Because of poverty, the lack of opportunities and the unemployment are responsible for pushing children on the street. Other times they get locked up in their homes and are submitted to domestic work which is difficult to measure. Not to mention mining activities or rural work, which result in enormous physical wear.
Since the creation of the CONAETI in the jurisdiction of the Department of Labor, the following definition of child work applies: "All those activities and/or strategies of survival, either paid or not, carried out by children under the minimum age required by the law for employment (14 years). Visible, invisible or hidden strategies or activities in which the profit is intended for the children themselves, for the maintenance of their family group and/or for the appropriation of exploitative third parties".
Child work has consequences which may be hard to revert during adult age. "The child's right to education is infringed. Many children carry out unhealthy labor and, since they enter the labor market so early, they acquire responsibilities appropriate of an older person. They are sources of income for their homes, with the resulting pressure. Some kinds of work, such as peddling, expose them to risks improper of their age", Vidal said.
The poorest classes are the ones which take less conscience of the seriousness of this issue. This is shown by a survey in which the University of Tres de Febrero questioned 4,000 persons, of which 56.4% considered the problem to be very important; 34.1%, said it is quite important; 5.7% considered it of little importance; 2%, thought it was not important at all, and 1.8% refused to answer. Most of those people who said child work was not that important were lower-class.
As mentioned above, begging is the main activity of the children which are on the streets of Buenos Aires. Some 14% perform juggling acts or some type of artistic expression for which they ask for some contribution. 11% work as "cartoneros" (people whose job is to collect paper and cardboard discarded by stores and households in urban centers for sale and recycling), many ot them together with their parents. 4% peddle in bars, public transportation or on the street, and another 4% help a grown up. 3% care for other children, usually their little siblings, and 2% take care of parked cars. 1% said they were learning some trade, and another 1% said they were selling drugs. "They are not dealers -clarified Grima-, they leave their shanty town from where they bring glue and unprocessed cocaine, and sell them among them."
UNICEF's Elena Duro believes that isolated programs cannot revert this situation, that it takes articulated public policies.
"There is not yet a child work eradication policy in our country, but there have been great advances in this field and I believe that it will be developed in a near future. Several studies were completed in which we collaborated with the Department of Labor, now a strategy must be designed considering the joint work of the areas of Health, Education, Social Development and Labor, besides from NGOs", she said.
Thousands of kids who fell into poverty or were born poor take to the street of the center of Buenos Aires at nightfall in order to survive. They are a short statured army which day by day experiences things that other children of their age never heard of talking: they clean car windshields at corners, they barefootedly juggle at traffic signals, they ask for money at the door of restaurants or they go through garbage in search of food. A demanding and neglected life which leads many towards the most destructive and cheapest drugs such as glue, and pushes others to prostitution.
ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome
Code: ZE04121001
Date: 2004-12-10
ROME, DEC. 10, 2004 (Zenit.org).- An international meeting on the plight of street children says there is an urgent need for a pastoral program to help the youngsters.
Street children are a "'snapshot' of the society in which they live, which has not supported them," but rather "in some way has caused" their predicament, and allowed them to drift, concluded the participants of the first International Meeting for the Pastoral Care of Street Children.
These were the conclusions of the Oct. 25-26 meeting organized by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers. The Rome meeting gathered members of the dicastery, as well as representatives of 18 bishops' conferences from around the world, and experts in the field.
John Paul II sent a message of encouragement to the participants, expressing his desire that they formulate proposals to help youngsters at risk.
The number of street children worldwide -- 100 million, according to Amnesty International; 150 million, according to the International Labor Organization -- constitutes a "social emergency, in addition to a pastoral" emergency, the participants said in a statement. They criticized public institutions for not mobilizing adequately with programs of "prevention and recovery."
Strictly speaking, "children 'of' the street" are those who are "deprived of ties with their original nuclear families," making "the street their home," the conferees said.
They were also concerned about the "worrying phenomenon" of "children 'on' the street" in developed countries, who "prefer to live day to day with little or no responsibility for formation."
The participants outlined a list of causes behind the phenomenon of street children: the "growing disintegration" of the family and "situations of tension between parents"; emigration; poverty; the spread of alcoholism and other drug dependencies; prostitution; wars; and social conflicts.
As well, there is the spread of a culture "of transgression," lack of reference values, loneliness, and an "ever-more profound" sense of "existential emptiness that characterizes the world of youth in general."
In contrast to the lack of involvement of public authorities -- according to the meeting's participants -- private social intervention and the work of volunteers is "appreciable."
However, though "active and efficient," partnership of an "ecclesial framework and Christian inspiration" is "absolutely inadequate given the magnitude of the needs," and seems "disconnected" from a specialized pastoral program.
Thus, the participants of the international meeting recommended the preparation of a "specific pastoral program for these children, articulating new strategies and ways in order to put them in contact with the liberating and healing force of the Gospel."
"Only a minority of initiatives in the ecclesial realm goes beyond interventions of social assistance and psycho-pedagogy," they noted.
There is a need, they added, to respond to "the urgent invitation to a new evangelization, which the Holy Father has been repeating for years" because only "an encounter with the Risen Christ can give back the joy of resurrection to one who is in death."
This makes it imperative to move from "the pastoral program of waiting to the pastoral program of encounter," going directly to the children "in the 'angry' areas of our cities," the participants said in their conclusions.
The pastoral programs must include many interventions that "give street children the possibility of being supported in establishing a new relationship with themselves, with others, with God, with the community to which they belong or which they have adopted, and to discover that there is someone who loves them."
Communities and groups should be established -- in or outside of the parish -- where youths have the possibility to know and live the Gospel, the participants said.
Further, there must be schools of prayer in parishes and ecclesial institutions, formation of evangelization teams and "missionary" youths, formation centers for street evangelization, alternative meeting places for youngsters which offer options full of values and meaning, and centers where they can begin their journey of interior healing based on the Gospel, they stated.
Whenever possible, work must also be done with the original families of street children, to assist them in the "reconstruction of the family fabric and the gradual support and reinsertion" of street children in their homes.
ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome
ROME, NOV. 19, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Despite the Pope's repeated appeals, the phenomenon of child soldiers -- 300,000 are active in some 20 conflicts -- is far from disappearing.
In his condemnation of the afflictions suffered at present by children, John Paul II mentioned in his 2004 Lenten message the situation of minors "enrolled for combat" and said that those children are "profoundly wounded by the violence of adults."
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers presented its 2004 Global Report to the press in London this week. The report states the number of children between the ages of 9-17 who have been recruited by armies or armed groups and sent to fight.
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The text raises the alarm in regard to "dozens of armed groups in many regions of the world" that "continue to recruit children, obliging them to fight, training them in the use of arms and explosives, and subjecting them to violence, forced labor, and other forms of vexations."
Special reference was made to the conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Colombia and Chechnya.
About 300,000 minors are involved at present in conflicts worldwide, according to the report, which analyzes the use in 196 countries of minors by government militias or rebels, in the period April, 2001 to March, 2004. In Africa alone, there are some 100,000 child-soldiers.
It is estimated that at least 21 ongoing wars exploit minors for military purposes.
In some cases, not only are the children trained in the use of weapons, but they are also used spies, as in Israel, and are obliged to use violence against their contemporaries, as in Angola and Sierra Leone. Some are used as drug-pushers, as is the case in Colombia.
The duration of modern conflicts, often between 10-15 years, turns the children into "spare human material", indispensable for decimated armies. They are also instruments of vengeance in the criminal logic of those who enroll them to punish the enemy, such as parents and the community, said the Italian newspaper Avvenire.
The report has significant data on Afghanistan, Angola, and Sierra Leone. The end of war has led, in recent years, to the demobilization of 40,000 children. This contrasts with the new situation of 25,000 other children, who are involved in the wars in the Ivory Coast and Sudan.
The main recruiters and exploiters of child-soldiers are armed groups, both pro-government as well as opposition forces. Not infrequently, as in the case of FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia), children are referred to "war councils" for disciplinary infractions and, in some cases, murdered, even by their contemporaries.
In the eastern region of Congo, armed groups have committed particularly atrocious violations and abuses against youngsters.
But the coalition also emphasizes the case of children who are trained in legitimized military academies or enrolled legally, though not sent to fight. In this connection, the report criticizes 60 governments, among them, those of the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Holland. Recently, President Vladimir Putin reintroduced military schools in Russia, in disuse for a long time.
There are also children who are trained for war and take part in military operations, as established in their countries' legislation.
The report mentions the United States, which annually recruits more than 10,000 seventeen-year old boys who become part of the Armed Forces. Between 2003 and 2004, 53 were sent to Iraq, five to Afghanistan, and two to Kuwait.
The coalition appeals to governments to exclude all recruitment of minors under the age of 18, and to comply fully with the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
For more information, see http://www.child-soldiers.org.
Agencia Informativa Católica Argentina - News Service - 09/21/04
Buenos Aires, SEP 21 (AICA): On last September 14 the Felices los Niños Foundation welcomed a new religious order which took over the San José Obrero Residential School in the Buenos Aires burough of Chacarita. We refer to the Sisters of Martha and Mary who -with the agreement of the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio- came to “deliver their service and spirit of prayer to the poorest children among the poor”.
That day the sisters were met by the children of the Virgen Niña Home, the Madre Maravillas de Jesús Kindergarten, the Santa Teresa de los Andes School and the Contact Center, which raises funds on the premises. All of these works operate at 753 Charlone in the city of Buenos Aires.
The sisters were welcomed by the Felices los Niños Foundation authorities: Sister Auxilia Smiderle, President, of the Order of the Poor Daughters of Saint Gaetan; Sister María Elena Ferracuti, Vice-President, of the Sisters of Saint Anne; the parish priest of the area, Fr. Gabriel Marronetti; the Salesian Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus who work at the Hurlingham headquarters, the Residential School coordinator, Yolanda Casal; the Head of the School, Laura Ruiz, and the Founder of Felices los Niños, Fr. Julio César Grassi.
After their arrival they visited the work and shared Eucharist with the children and the institution personnel. After lunch they got a phone welcome by Cardinal Bergoglio who was pleased by the sister's arrival and wished them a fortunate apostolate.
The Order of Martha and Mary was founded in 1979 by Monsignor Miguel Angel García Aráuz, first Bishop of Jalapa, Guatemala, and by Mother Angela Eugenia Silva Sánchez, currently the General Superior, who visited the Residential School on Friday 17. Their charisma is "love, respect, and special devotion to Sacramented Jesus and to the Virgin Mary". The name of Martha and Mary remembers these saints and expects to emulate them “in generous and unselfish service to brothers and sisters and in the great love to their Divine Master”.
Currently there are more than 300 sisters in this Order in Guatemala, Spain, Venezuela, Argentina, and Italy. In their example of prayer and contemplation there come together apostolic zeal, activity, and service, as well as intimacy with Jesus in contemplation through prayer.
Agencia Informativa Católica Argentina (AICA) - 04/02/04 - Servicio Nacional
Buenos Aires, APR 2 (AICA): On April 8, Maundy Thursday, at 7 p.m. in the Don Bosco City of Children, 3520 Gorriti St. in Hurlingham, the Luis Sandrini Drama School of the Felices los Niños Foundation will enact a living Via Crucis. In case of rain the performance will be held on Good Friday at the same hour.
The Drama School is directed by Derlis Beccaglia, who in order to enact this Way of the Cross was assisted in the production by Lucas Echeverría, the Foundation's Art Department coordinator. Some 50 children who live in Felices los Niños' homes or who get the Foundation's schooling will be in charge of enacting the stations of the Passion of Jesus Christ.
Also very valuable was the contribution of Edgardo Mancini, the director of the Foundation's high school in Hurlingham, who set up the school's timetable so the children could rehearse daily without interfering with class. The preparation demanded many months of work, starting with the script which was in charge of Beccaglia.
The narration (which will be told by announcer Luis Albornoz), the dialogues and the soundtrack were recorded at the premises of Radio Belgrano, who was kind enough to provide the studio. Costume design and props were in charge of an educator of the Foundation, Cecilia Maristani, and Delicia and Marcos provided help in the making of costumes and in maintenance chores.
“We want many people to come -Lucas Echeverría says- so that many can listen to the Word of God and can live through the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ together with the children who will enact it”.
La Nación newspaper - 01/19/04 - Editorial I
That in our country there are human beings with hunger is a blemish which demands quick remedy. However, the existence of children in these conditions is simply an unacceptable emergency that should put all Argentinians to shame -both rulers and governed subjects, with no exception- and induce us to carry out an exercise of deep reflection about our responsibility, moved by the purpose of combining efforts in order to do as much as can be done to solve this as soon as possible.
No one who prides himself on having a minimum of sensibility can remain at rest in view of this most serious social and humanitarian problem, which from time to time is noted by the public whenever the media spread it both in text and in images. It is customary that these pitiful news highlight the special situation of the Tucumán province, where the child malnutrition strikes very hard. This evil, however, exists in different forms in many areas of our vast geography.
Without looking further and as a mere example about a year ago this editorial column quoted a research paper written by the public health authorities of the Entre Rios province which had shown hair-raising data: At that time, while the survey was still unfinished, 7000 children had been found in Entre Rios which suffered from malnutrition in different degrees.
Needless to say, the total or partial lack of a decent, healthy diet according to children's needs affects childhood in its physical and intellectual development. But this is not the only outcome of such an unbearable reality, even more so if we keep in mind that even today Argentina brags about its food-producing capability. Child malnutrition goes hand in hand with such illnesses as parasitosis, anemia, tuberculosis and other serious affections.
Therefore there is no excuse for those who being rulers, representatives or government officials have tolerated by means of their administrative ineptitude, or even worse, by means of false promises, indifference or acts of corruption, the arrival at this extreme. They even cannot be justified by the argument that child malnutrition is of very old date in certain social strata which, instead of using their ingenuity to procure their basic diet by their own means -common orchards, small-scale plantings- just look for a precarious and comfortable refuge in depending only on welfare policies.
Of course these justified rebukes take into account that the scourge of the child malnutrition has promoted an infinity of supportive initiatives, both private and public, moved by the healthy intention of facing this problem and relieving it. Just to cite some, the Farm Solidary Plan (Solidagro) should be mentioned together with the endeavored work of such organizations as the Solidary Network or Caritas -among others- and so many dining halls which with great effort and many times just scarcely fight hunger in some of the many deprived areas. As an example it is only fair to mention that just a few days ago the Province of Tucumán started a food program which by means of the delivery of food modules will assist this summer some 150,000 children aged 5 to 14 years.
It is notwithstanding necessary to clearly state both sides of the coin. Although much has already be and is currently done regarding this issue, we cannot ignore the many reprehensible apathies that have hindered, sterilized or impeded other efforts in the same sense. One of those inexcusable postponements has been the one which in last November after a delay of more than two years allowed the loss of parliamentary state of the "Special system for the donation of food, prepared meals and groceries" ("Donal") government bill which had been prepared based on the humanitary support system which is globally known as the "Good Samaritan Law".
Due to the absence of this legislation the existing food banks in our country cannot count on the many tons of food in perfectly good condition which are destroyed day by day. It can be seen that there is supportive spirit, altruism and good will, although some degree of dispersion might be present, which reduces eficiency. It would therefore become indispensable that the fight against child malnutrition should become a prioritary state policy based on the absolute and determined endorsement of all well-born Argentinians.
The subsistence of child malnutrition affects the children, that is to say the most defenseless beings of our society, has a negative impact on the future of our country, is an ethical and moral affront, opposes social coexistence, and pulls a heavy blanket of embarrassment on the conscience of those adults who do not make an extreme effort to put this to an end. It is time, then, to head for a definitive repair of this real abuse of our children.
For more information, see http://www.child-soldiers.org.
Nuevo Diario de Santiago del Estero newspaper- 10/06/03
The children of the Foundation's Santa Rosa de Lima Home had an outstanding performance during their first presentation at the Chaco-Santiago del Estero Olimpics.
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Nuevo Diario de Santiago del Estero newspaper - 08/14/03
Felices los Niños celebrated Children's Day at its Homes nationwide. Santiago del Estero was no exception. The Nuevo Diario newspaper of that province devoted an article to us highlighting the participation of 1500 children who enjoyed the activities organized to treat and pamper them at the Santa Rosa de Lima Home.
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La Nación newspaper - 07/22/03 - By Silvina Premat
The Happy Father's Day signs for Father Julio César Grassi hung by his friends at the Felices los Niños (FFN) Foundation gate in Hurlingham last June are fading as time goes by. Just in the same way as the image of those huge truckloads crossing the gate with donations of tons of biscuits, dairy and meat products and liters of milk.
Meat is no longer served at the institution's dining halls as frequently as in recent months. Suppliers have not collected payment for two months and the staff will soon be receiving their May salary. Children living at the Homes do not get as many visits from families who used to bring them presents and take them on outings.
Nine months after the media explosion around the criminal case where reports on corruption of minors against Grassi are being investigated, its consequences are blatant (Father Grassi has now been prosecuted and under restricted freedom confinement, and after the court holiday is over a decision regarding the trial stage will be made).
"When the Foundation was "hit", much of its financing system took a great blow", the FFN accountant and independent auditor, Joaquín Naredo, said to LA NACION. The latter must wait and see year 2003 balance sheets in order to assess the impact in the Foundation's economy.
 Virgen de los Desamparados Dining Hall children await a more nourishing menu |
According to Maximiliamo Gulmanelli, general coordinator of FFN's Homes, ever since reports against the priest became public, a "catastrophe" struck the Foundation's beneficiaries. There are 6400 children being assisted in 21 towns within the country, providing them food, shelter, education, a roof and spiritual instruction in 52 different centers and homes.
"The Homes' current situation is not one of want or shortage. The menu has changed, children eat much less meat", explained Gulmanelli. "No charitable work has been closed down and the number of assisted children kept growing", he described, recalling that up until the end of 2001, 3400 children were cared for and that in a year and a half's time other 3000 joined in.
TV host Raúl Portal took on the leadership of FFN when Grassi was arrested. "We're like everybody else, trying to put up with the situation as best we can", he said and regretted that a Canadian organization had frozen a Arg$3,000 donation when rumor had it that Grassi had taken money to Switzerland. "We could pay off all our debts with that money", he lamented.
This year's budget, forecast in July, 2002, is of Arg$13,012,016. The National Government approved subsidies for Arg$1,918,535, out of which only Arg$500,000 were collected.
The remaining close to Arg$11,000,000 were supposed to be funded by money and in-kind donations from the private sector, which -until last year- were made up almost in equal parts of contributions from permanent or occasional donors and of income obtained from other initiatives.
According to Naredo, traditional sponsors remain loyal. "Difficulties arise with nonrecurring resources", he said, and added "Delays in some donations and the lack of offerings by legal entities and companies force us to buy more food".
"Finally someone from the Foundation dropped by!", cried out María Elena Dahud, when she received the visit of FFN authorities last Tuesday. She is responsible for the Virgen de los Desamparados Day Care Center which feeds breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks to 60 children since last September, in Nuestra Señora del Carmen Church, in the Villa Angela settlement, close to FFN headquarters.
"The work is alive and was never halted thanks to private sector generosity", clarified Naredo. There are two schools under construction in the José León Suárez and San Miguel Districts. He also admitted to the reality that the great majority of aid coming to the centers and homes today depends on the solidarity present at each individual district.
6400 children. Today, 6400 children are assisted by the Foundation.
550 employees. Not including teaching staff, the Foundation has 550 employees.
20 homes. There are 20 homes in all, 15 day care centers, 9 schools, 6 dining halls, 2 rescue groups and 33 job training workshops.
In the Provinces the following homes operate: Nuestra Señora de la Patagonia Home in Santa Cruz, Maitey Rory Mitakuera Center in Formosa, San Cayetano in San Juan, El Buen Pastor in Chaco, and Santa Rosa de Lima in Santiago del Estero.
Arg$13,012,016 is the budget forecast by the institution for 2003.
Arg$1,918,535 is the amount of government subsidies it receives.
First Work: Casa del Niño Don Bosco, in 1993, at the current Hurlingham site.
La Revistita newspaper: The Voice of Máximo Paz - July 2003 - By Mario Morhain
The meeting was over and the young ones who would occasionally get together to rehearse religious songs greeted Sister Angelina goodbye at the entrance to the Congregation.
Only Claribel and Judith would stay behind waiting for the former's older brother to chaperon both girls -neighbors- to their homes.
They had to wait and so they did.
That is when the question came up:
"Sister... is it true there is Heaven, Hell and Purgatory?", asked Claribel to start off the conversation which would lead to amazing observations.
Claribel and Judith were only 9, and that age stimulates curiosity. Now, alone with the Sister, she could receive answers all for herself.
"Yes, it's true", answered Sister Angelina.
The Sister adapted her explanations to the children's ages so as to be understood without major difficulties.
Again Claribel turned to the religious woman.
"And how do you become a Sister?"
"Well, you have to wait until God calls upon you and then, when we feel that calling you can come to our home and live with us, when you're 16 or 17 and hence become a Sister. After some preparation time, we Sisters get married to God and devote our lives to Him."
"Oh, ...You marry God...", exclaimed Claribel with surprise, "...but you don't have children..."
"Yes. We have plenty of children, many many, answered Angelina, "Who do you think are our children?"
"Well...", thought the little one, "I believe your children are...angels! Right?"
"No, Claribel! You are our children. The children from the Boccardo Home, your brothers and sisters and all those who approach us or those we approach. Those are our children!
"Of course, that's true! You're like our moms because you're always helping us and buying us sneakers and coveralls, and you help us... It's true. You're like our second moms."
Claribel was referring to the care the Sisters gave to many children attending the Day Care Center who, together with Felices los Niños Foundation, opened their doors every morning for over one hundred and forty children.
But, after pondering for a moment, the little girl added:
"If you are our moms, then Father Julio is our father because he takes care and worries a lot about us too, right?"
"Of course", broke in Judith, "He is always concerned about us and he even went to jail for us. He is very good."
The conversation then turned to other issues until Sister Angelina chaperoned the girls to their homes because the big brother who was supposed to pick up Claribel had not shown up.
But the sharp remarks lingered in the air and the girls' fruitful imagination -despite being at an age where there is not much to worry about- allows them to understand much more than we suppose, and they see and relate things with greater clarity than some adults.
NOTE: This conversation took place between the girls and Sisters of the Juan María Boccardo Home in Máximo Paz, Buenos Aires
Nuevo Diario de Santiago del Estero newspaper - 03/22/03
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Nuevo Diario de Santiago del Estero newspaper - 03/18/03
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Le Figaro newspaper- 08/14/02 - By Irina de Chikoff
The prestigious French newspaper devoted an article to Father Grassi.
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