ROME, JAN. 24, 2012 (Zenit.org).- The Community of Sant’Egidio reported on what happened with the 180 Filipinos and 170 Indonesians who were left without anything in Italy, far from their countries and families, in the aftermath of the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship.
Last Jan. 13, a total of 350 foreign workers were on board the Costa Concordia, which was shipwrecked off the coast of the Italian Island of Giglio.
The communiqué refers to the workers as “angels,” who helped and rescued hundreds of persons. The workers finally disembarked, soaked and freezing, and almost all of them barefoot. None of them had clothes to change into, or a family to help them.
They appealed to the Sant’Egidio Community, which from its collection and distribution center in Rome, called the “Eco-Solidarity City,” in just a few hours sent coats, shoes and warm clothing for the shipwrecked workers.
For its part, the embassy of the Philippines to the Holy See thanked the Sant’Egidio Community for the aid offered, and made it known that, after a thanksgiving Mass, all the Filipino citizens were on their way home. Only one has stayed behind in hospital in Italy.
In its Eco-Solidarity City in Rome, the Sant’Egidio Community collects and distributes food, clothing and other aid, fruit of the generosity of many donors.
