SPECIAL REPORTS
(ANS - Rome) - The world currently observes how the pandemic develops. Preventive dynamics is the best answer: once again, to prevent is better than to cure. This was also Don Bosco's answer to overcoming cholera. According to the text of the Biographical Memoirs, he was profoundly humane and began by recommending to his young people exactly "the same remedies prescribed by doctors: sobriety, temperance, peace of mind and courage". Later, being also deeply holy, he "prescribed" the "best and most effective medicine": trust in Mary Help of Christians, "Health of the sick", and life "in the grace of God" (MB V, 83).
(ANS - Santiago) - Amid this pandemic, some celebrations fade into the background, but the World Day of Prayer for Vocations cannot go unnoticed. At this moment of history, we have mourned the death of thousands of people who have died as a result of Covid-19 and we have also mourned the death of dozens of priests as a result of this pandemic. The vocation is a call from God to some, and it is up to each of us "to find the courage to say yes, by offering one's life," as Pope Francis writes in the Message for the 57th World Day of Prayer for Vocations.
(ANS - Sidney) - The classrooms are closed, the school playgrounds are empty and the staff classrooms are silent. A normal school day now comes to life through a screen and headphones. But in a period of uncertainty and change, one thing remains constant: teachers will find a way to teach and students will find a way to learn.
(ANS – New Delhi) – Jamlo Makdam, a 12-year old girl, interstate migrant child labourer, died trying to walk to her home in Chhattisgarh state. Jamlo’s parents are poor and live off forest produce, according to reports. They had stayed home and sent her with a group of seasonal interstate migrants from her village to the neighbouring Telangana state to work in the chilli harvest. With the extension of the sudden national lockdown, the adults decided to walk around 150 kms in the summer heat to get back home because they had no means of surviving nor any hope of employment. Jamlo managed to walk most of the distance over 3 days but collapsed approximately 50 kms away from her village. Medical officials attribute her death to imbalance of electrolytes. She had not eaten properly because she was not feeling very well. She tested COVID-19 negative. So, what killed her?