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125 Thompson street - P.O.Box 684 - New York, NY 10012 (212) 674 4388 - Fax (212) 533 8034 Office of Communication NEW YORK, NY “We’ve been there over 50 years and nothing compares with the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in our Central American Missions”, said Faranciscan Immaculate Conception Provincial Fr. Robert Campagna, ofm in announcing the immediate dispatch of $ 50,000 in emergency funds to mission stations in Honduras, Central America. “The village of La Libertad has been set back almost half-a-century in the devastation inflicted on the people. We know 750 residents were buried by the mudslide and 31 homes washed away. Information is slowly coming out. It is horrible”, the Provincial said. With 19 missioners in all of Central America, 12 in Hondurs, Fr. Robert said, “although we can’t communicate directly with them all, we believe none of the Friars and Sisters were lost and they are able to be with their people in the capital of Tegucigalpa and elsewhere throughout the badly battered nation”. Fr. Robert pointed out that while some villagers live in concrete three room houses many still live in circular grass huts and obtain their firewood from the forests and their drinking water from the streams - now badly polluted. Friars from the Immaculate Conception Province in New York have been missioned to Central America since immediately after World War II. Over the past 50 years many new vocations have come to the friars from the missions and a few years ago a separate province was established where seminarians and sister novices have voluntereed to dedicate their lives to their people in a Franciscan Way of Life. Additional funds for the victims will be sent as soon as reliable information on the immediate needs is available. Donations may be sent to Franciscan Mission Associates, 274 West Lincoln Avenue, Mount Vernon, NY 10550 and they will be added to the help being given to the neediest families and towns in the devastated area.
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