The annual meeting of the Administrative Council of the Vatican Foundation Populorum Progressio for Latin America, was held from June 24-26, 2019 in Bogota, Colombia, states a press release dated July 2, 2019. Among the deliberations were: the financing of projects for indigenous communities, mestizos, Afro-Americans and peasants of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Administrative Council examined 138 projects from 17 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Particular attention was given to countries of the Pan-Amazonian region, where, in the course of its existence, the Foundation has carried out 638 project, which benefited more than 40 indigenous communities, as well as an important number of rural and Afro-American communities, with a special attention to Venezuela and Central America.
The note specifies that these projects are concerned with the different dimensions of integral human development: production (agro-pastoral, traditional and commercial); infrastructures (water and sanitation networks, energy, multi-purpose rooms, warehouses, communal canteens and sanitary units); finance (micro-credits and community stores); health (centers and sanitary equipment, latrines and biological pits); education (classrooms, computer equipment and pedagogic tools); communication (stations and local radio and television equipment).
The members of the Foundation’s Administrative Council took part in this meeting: Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development — Dicastery to which the Foundation is entrusted — and President and legal Representative of the Foundation; Monsignor Javier Augusto del Rio Alba, Archbishop of Arequipa, Peru, President of the Administrative Council(CdA); Monsignor Oscar Urbina Ortega, Archbishop of Villavicencio, Colombia, Vice-President of the CdA; Cardinal Chibly Langlois, Bishop of Les Cayes, Haiti; Monsignor Jose Luis Azuaje Ayala, Archbishop of Maracaibo, Venezuela; Monsignor Murilo Sabastiao Ramos Krieger, S.C.I., Archbishop of Sao Salvador da Bahia, Brazil; Monsignor Eduardo Maria Taussig, Bishop of San Rafael, Argentina, and Monsignor Segundo Tejada Munoz, Under-Secretary of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development.
The Administrative Council’s new Secretary, Father Luis Ferney Lopez Jimenez coordinated the works. Participating also for the first time were delegates of Cross Catholic Outreach, a Catholic charitable organization, which has supported the Foundation’s activities since 2018.
