Before the celebration of the World Health DayEusebio Muñoz, director of Salesian Missions, warns that the consequences of the pandemic will be visible in the long term, especially for the most vulnerable: "After the pandemic we are already being warned that there will be more hunger and more inequality. At least 150 million more people are going to go into poverty".
Muñoz pointed out how the "coronavirus has widened inequalities and has shown that health is a question of opportunities and the place where one is born". Along these lines, he highlighted the work of the Salesian missions, which last year attended to more than 11 million people in 121 countries who have been able to benefit from programs to raise awareness of the disease, distribute food and hygiene kits on which they have worked especially hard.
Among the actions carried out, the Salesian Missions highlight that "more than 2.5 million people in India have been able to eat thanks to the food kits and prepared rations that have been distributed. In Lesotho, more than 2,400 "survival packs with food and hygiene kits" have been distributed. The gymnasiums of several Salesian educational centers in America have become food warehouses during these months, which have been distributed to thousands of vulnerable families. In Myanmar500 families were fed thanks to the food distributions made by the Salesian communities. Street children, such as in Ethiopia, have been taken in so that they can spend their confinement in safe places. In Togo and the Ivory Coast, we have also worked to support children at risk of exclusion. In the Philippines, Salesian missionaries and young people from Salesian educational centers distributed Personal Protective Equipment to front-line workers and managed to design ventilators for seriously ill patients. In Peru, we have been visiting people living in the garbage dump. We have been accompanying migrants, vulnerable families, the elderly, the disabled, refugees...".
Salesian Missions wanted to reaffirm its commitment to eradicating the inequalities that are still evident today in access to health care.
