Fr John Greene, has been working in Chile with the Columban Fathers since October 2015 and hopes to return to Dublin in the coming months. He sent ECI this news from his parish:
Here in the parish of San Matias, a very poor area on the outskirts of Santiago, we try to promote ecology. The main chapel has a beautiful garden of flowers, shrubs, trees and vegetables. All the work in the garden is done by the elderly, on a voluntary basis. They come for a few hours three times a week to water the shrubs and do any pruning or weeding. With the restrictions of the Pandemia, this curtailed their work, but were glad to be back attending it, when the restrictions were lifted.
Here in our zone, they run courses in the summer time for all our parish helpers. Last January (our summer), the coordinator of one of the chapels, came to me afterwards to say she had got great ideas to help the parents and children of the First Communion Program – recycling, a vegetable garden, etc.
Initiatives like these are very useful in a poor area, where people are used to throwing their garbage on the side of the street, knowing that the Local Authorities will clean it up. It is difficult to educate them, but initiatives like the two projects at the chapels are a help.