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Great story from Cartagena

The Adventure of love

In Cartagena, Colombia, children who accumulated handicaps due to misery or illnesses were left to their own devices. Pascal Affolter from Zurich has built for them, brick by brick, a high quality foundation.

Samedi 24 juin 2006
Etienne Dubuis, Cartagena. Traduction: Sylvia Hottinger

A small weak contorted body is in the dark of a makeshift cabin of wooden boards. Suffering from cerebral paralysis since birth, Luis Daniel, 4 years of age, is incapable of moving his arms or legs. He’s incapable of lifting his head. He’s incapable of speaking. Poor amongst the poor he is in a big iron bed, its legs at the least rain threaten to give out into the mud of this shanty town. In Cartagena, Colombia, on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, misfortune is as sordid as its old colonial city, a few kilometers away, is magnificent. Affluence and misery. Mud and gold. It’s a never ending story.

Pascal Affolter wanted to begin his story from here. If we were interested in him, we should understand from the start the meaning of his work. We’d better become aware straight away of what led him, a young pedagogue from Zurich who had the promise of an easy life, to start anew at the other end of the world. And in ten years time, brick by brick, build a foundation called Aluna, which means “creation” in the language of the Kogis Indians. It’s a place for children that have accumulated poverty and illness related handicaps… in a country whose state has other priorities than these two scourges.

Well, this guy is incredible! He loves living in Colombia too, by the way. Full story can be found at
http://www.letemps.ch/template/transmettre.asp?contenupage=nlreader&page=newsletterdisplay&id=20&NLArtID=7007

By Crazy Eagle on Jun 26, 2006, 10:47 in Friendly Talkzone.

Monpirri says on Jun 26, 2006, 12:42:

Crazy Eagle "The Adventure of Love" is a very interesting story! Thank you for sharing it with us, and God bless Mr. Pascal Affolter and his family.

Annette Taddeo for US Congress 2008

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