AMERICA/ARGENTINA - Caritas fundraiser: Four out of ten Argentines are poor

Buenos Aires (Agenzia Fides) - "There are 5,687 poor villages or working-class neighborhoods in our country. Thousands of families have very limited access to basic services. Here lies the hard core of poverty. These are people who want something: a land to build their own house and a job to feed their families. Land, a roof and a job: these are the wishes of all Argentines", emphasizes Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires and Vice President of Caritas Argentina, Gustavo Carrara, looking at the annual Caritas fundraiser to be held on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th June in all the country's parishes, (see Fides, 2/6/2022). The Bishop also pointed out that "in recent years the gap has widened and the number of poor and destitute has increased. This is the real gap in Argentina and it must not continue. Our country will not be happy, if this gap is not bridged". On the occasion of this day, Caritas Argentina and the Social Debt Observatory of the Catholic University of Argentina (ODSA-UCA) have published a report on poverty in Argentina. Agustín Salvia, Director of ODSA-UCA, stresses: "An important part of society cannot fulfill its dreams and many cannot even meet their basic needs. The Argentine problem is that this poverty is not new: we were not able to find the coordinates of a state policy capable of responding to the needs of our society for work and human development. Currently, 4 out of 10 Argentines are poor, both in terms of income and in terms of social demands fundamental rights such as education, health, housing and living space, and of these, what is worse, one in 10 suffers from hunger every day". The director of the UCA Observatory on Social Debt stressed the need for development policies that address people's pressing problems through education, health, employment and work, and active policies that tackle structural poverty. Executive Director of Caritas Argentina, Nicolás Meyer, emphasizes: "This poverty hurts us, it affects many of our brothers and sisters, it is time not only to think about it, but to do something to change this. The current system is leading to poverty and exclusion, but at the same time there are many experiences of work and improvement, he noted: "We need more decent jobs to reduce the social gap" and he called on people to participate in the collection, as "every little contribution goes a long way towards narrowing the gap". (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 11/6/2022)

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