1327 'When will you return?' doctors, nurses and authorities ask Don Bosco Pakistan...'And indeed we shall'
austraLasia 1327
'When will you return?' doctors, nurses and
authorities ask Don Bosco Pakistan...'And indeed we shall'.
QUETTA: 13th November 2005 -- Fr Peter Zago, superior
of the Salesian mission in Pakistan, has just returned to Quetta from
Lahore, where he attended the joint meeting of Bishops and Major
Superiors from Pakistan. At the conclusion of that meeting, the
president of Caritas in Pakistan, Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad
Diocese, praised the work of the Salesians in Abottabad where a
rehabilitation camp of 200 tents was pitched by the side of the Aiub
Teaching Hospital, itself badly damaged by the earthquake. The Bishop
mentioned that the Salesians, helped by local generous friends, were
amongst the first to move to the area from far away Lahore (560 km) and
Quetta (1,400 km). Fr Zago was then invited to briefly present
the work done and immediate future plans. We will let him take up
the story from here:
"The many present were amazed at how a group of
about 50 young students aged 12-18 could put up in such a short time,
about 15 days, such a complex work of pitching 200 tents, providing
electricity, water, toilets, gas kitchen, cooking and serving food,
preparing the interior of tents with beds, mattresses, carpets, plus
transporting to the camp the many wounded who had been flown in from
the mountains by helicopters, and helping doctors and nurses to deliver
medical services.
"Fr Miguel and myself, present day and night till
the end, when we handed over the camp to local authorities, were
ourselves touched by the generosity of our students. We were also
much encouraged by the Apostolic Nuncio in Islamabad, Msgr Alessandro
D'Errico who,following the Mass and meeting, announced that the
Nunciature would give 20,000 euro for the continuation of our
work. A few days ago, soon after the celebration of the Muslim
Eid, we received phone calls from our friends, camp authorities,
doctors and nurses, thanking us for the dedication our Salesian
personnel had shown in the camp work and asking us 'When will you
return'?
"Yesterday, Fr Francis Alencherry, answering a
letter I had sent to the Rector Major, was encouraging us to
return. And indeed we shall. Fr Miguel went yesterday to
the many friends and authorities in Abbodabad to study the possibility
of placing a tent survival camp in Muna Jafra, 12 kms from Balacod the
epicentre of the quake.
"It seems that news of our project is reaching
faraway countries and peoples. Today. Fr Miguel will be
interviewed from Spain by telephone. We have received positive
and generous answers first of all from the Rector Major and Council,
then from VIS, from the Don Bosco Mission Offices in Bonn and Madrid,
Stiching Porticus from Holland, Jugend Dritte Welt from Austria, 'La
Madre' Foundation in the USA through Fr Lorenzoni, and many parishes
and individuals from around the world who follow our mission
work. The list is too long to remember.
"This coming week and group of young men from
Quetta, accompanied and led by Fr Julio Palmieri (Principal of Don
Bosco Learning Centre), and some of our postulants, our Italian nurse
Arianna, will join Fr Miguel and his students, postulants and
instructors in Lahore. Together they will venture 2,400 metres up
to Muna Jafra...a third camp could follow next Spring, March-April, to
construct solid houses in collaboration with Caritas and local and
foreign NGO's.
"May Don Bosco and his Mother and Teacher, Mary,
through the prayers of many, accompany us."
Fr Peter Zago.
_____________________
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