Don Bosco Róga Foundation helps improve quality of life with ongoing project 

(MissionNewswire) Don Bosco Róga Foundation and the Chalice Foundation are supporting the residents of the Divina Misericordia Rest Home located in the María Graciela neighborhood of the city of Ayolas, Paraguay. Both organizations delivered basic necessities to help improve the quality of life of the 18 elderly residents, many of whom live in vulnerable situations.

Domingo Cáceres, director of the Don Bosco Róga Foundation, said, “On behalf of the Catholic Chalice organization and the Don Bosco Róga Foundation, we are happy to contribute to the care and dignity of the daily lives of our elderly. This donation represents the first significant intervention in a series of planned donations to support the home on an ongoing basis.”

Salesian missionaries have been working in Paraguay since establishing a church in Asunción in 1896. Paraguay is among the poorest countries in South America. According to UNICEF, almost 23% of its population of 6.5 million people lives in poverty earning less than $1 per day. The gap between the small upper class and the large lower class is extreme and offers virtually no social mobility.

Conditions of poverty drive youth into early labor and a lack of literacy, in addition to a weak educational foundation, compounds the problem. Those in poverty face overcrowding, low quality housing and a lack of access to basic household services. Paraguayans who only graduate from primary school are twice as likely to live in poverty as those who have access to and complete secondary school.

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Sources:

ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS)

ANS – Paraguay – Important donation from the Don Bosco Róga Foundation to a home for the elderly in Ayolas

Salesian Missions – Paraguay

UNICEF – Paraguay

World Bank – Paraguay