On Tuesday, the social report of Pro Terra Sancta for the year 2021 was definitively approved in Jerusalem by the Shareholders' Assembly ( you can download it at this link ). In the meeting room of the convent of San Salvatore, the figures of the association's commitment for last year were submitted to the attention of Father Francesco Patton OFM, president of Pro Terra Sancta, and the other members.
"More than sixty-four thousand donations this year," says Tommaso Saltini, general director of the Association. "With a total of 33,376 individual donors, we can understand that many have donated more than once. It means they are fond of our business, the way we operate."
And the figures of these donations are reflected in the high number of beneficiaries to which Pro Terra Sancta is close with its projects: 68,330 for 2021. Of these, 4,311 were those who were able to take part in Conservation and Development projects. These are young people who have deepened, directly on the territory, the historical and religious culture that is breathed in the Holy Land. This is the best resource against the many conflicts that unfortunately still cross this area. The figure, unfortunately, has been affected a lot by the pandemic restrictions, which have blocked international mobility, but it remains a significant figure.
Pro Terra Sancta is also engaged in Education and Assistance projects, a very large area that covers needs such as schooling and health care for the elderly and disabled people. Here the beneficiaries of the Association's projects, scattered throughout the states of the Middle East, are really many: 17,666. Boys, girls, boys and girls who have been able to see their right to study recognized. Elderly, disabled, who have rediscovered a dignity that, in many contexts, seems lost. These are the stories behind the figures.
An answer to those who suffer
But the Association also responds to acute crises affecting States such as Syria and Lebanon. These are contexts in which violence, corruption and poverty have degraded political and institutional systems, closing the doors of the future in the face of millions of young people. Pro Terra Sancta has therefore taken action to respond to the suffering of these areas – and to ensure continuity in the response to the pandemic. The latter has also made itself felt in 2021: 43,353 were the beneficiaries. An army, really, that says so much about the reactivity that the Association has had in this difficult time. And that sets the course for the future.
Alongside the numbers that represent the activities of Pro Terra Sancta are the UN objectives for 2030. In about ten years, like all European NGOs, Pro Terra Sancta will also undergo international evaluation linked to objectives such as schooling, the reduction of poverty in the world, the reduction of inequalities, the construction of strong welfare institutions centered on local personnel ... These are all fronts on which the Association is active, on which it is already working, with the healthy ambition that distinguishes it in wanting to distribute what is good and beautiful to all, amplifying its effects.
A chain of beauty, of which the President of Pro Terra Sancta, Father Francesco Patton, also spoke to us at the end of the assembly. Watch the video to hear his words!
