PERUVIAN JOURNAL
So Much In Common BY SISTER SUE SCHARFENBERGER
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bancomundiallac/
As one listens to, or watches the news, it becomes clear how very much we are all alike across the globe, and at the same time, how very different! Many countries would like to remove their president, but only Peru has been able to do it so successfully—four times in five years! Many countries followed the guidelines of the World Helath Organization (WHO) and had limited problems with COVID-19. Peru followed the guidelines, but has one of the highest death rates due to Covid in all of Latin America. We did everything right and still got it wrong. Why? Peru is known for its “informality” in the workplace, on the economic front, and in its health care. We have written about this before, but it stands out even more noticeably when a pandemic comes along.
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SPRING 2021 | DOME
Limted resources and a fragile economy are stretched beyond the breaking point and the poor are hit the hardest.
In the face of the recent health
now, it is the church—certainly not only the Catholic Church, but other churches as well—who have come together and launched “Resurrect Peru.” This is a movement that involves private businesses, nongovernmental organizations, foreign investors and others, to pool resources to respond to the hunger and health needs of the population.
crisis, it is important to recognize the role of the church in Peru. When the health system was collapsing all around us, it was through the leadership of some of our church authorities that oxygen plants and home oxygen equipment became available, even in the most remote of areas. And
In addition to appealing to large international groups in the country, it attempts to move the ordinary people of society to give what they can, as well. Most of what has been collected has supplied innumerable soup kitchens across the country with food supplies to combat the hunger that thousands have faced.
Even in more “developed” countries, the very poor are the ones left out of the picture when there is a crisis, because they have been “left out” long before.
