Decisions of the Board of Directors of the “Populorum Progressio” Foundation, 9 July 2019

Press release

of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development

 

Decisions of the Board of Directors of the “Populorum Progressio” Foundation for Latin America (Bogotà, Colombia, 24-26 June 2019)



The annual meeting of the Board of Directors of the Populorum Progressio Foundation for Latin America was held from 24 to 26 June, entrusted to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The meeting, which was hosted by the Arcidiocese of Bogotà in Colombia, approved the financing of projects in favor of indigenous, mestizo, African American and peasant communities in Latin America and the Caribbean.

 

The meeting was also attended by the members if the Board of Directors of the Foundation: Cardinal Peter K. A. Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, as well as President and Legal Representative of the Foundation; Mons. Javier Augusto del Rio Alba, Archbishop of Arequipa (Peru), Chairman of the Board of Directors; Mons. Oscar Urbina Ortega, Archbishop of Villavicencio (Colombia), Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors; Cardinal Chibly Langlois, Bishop of Les Cayes (Haiti); Mons. José Luis Azuaje Ayala, Archbishop of Maracaibo (Venezuela); Mons. Murilo Sebastião Ramos Krieger, S.C.I., Archbishop of São Salvador da Bahia (Brazil); Mons. Eduardo Maria Taussig, Bishop of San Rafael (Argentina) and Mons. Segundo Tejado Muñoz, Under-Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The debate was coordinated by the new Secretary of the Board of Directors, P. Luis Ferney López Jiménez.

The following were also present: the Apostolic Nuncio in Colombia, Mons. Luis Mariano Montemayor; Cardinal Rubén Salazar Gómez, Archbishop of Bogotá; Mons. Juan Carlos Cárdenas Toro, Auxiliary Bishop of Cali and new Secretary General of CELAM; Juan Gómez Martínez, former Ambassador of Colombia at the UN and the Holy See, as well as the representatives of the Service for Charitable Action in the Third World of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, whose contribution allows financing most of the projects, together with individual participations. For the first time, delegates from Cross Catholic Outreach, a Catholic charitable organization that has supported the activities of the Foundation since 2018, also participated.

 

The Board of Directors examined approximately 138 projects from 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Particular attention was paid to the countries of the Pan-Amazonian Region, where over the years the Foundation has developed 638 projects from which over 40 indigenous communities, including a significant number of rural and African American communities, have benefited. Special emphasis was also placed on Venezuela and Central America. These projects concern the various dimensions of integral human development: production (agro-pastoral, artisanal and commercial); development of micro-enterprises; infrastructures (water and sewage networks, energy, multi-purpose spaces, warehouses, community cafeterias and healthcare units); finance (microcredit and community shops); health (healthcare centers and equipment, latrines and septic tanks); education (classrooms, IT equipment and training tools); communication (local radio-television broadcasters and equipment).

 

[01178-IT.01]
[B0570-XX.01]

09 July 2019