The Global

Food Banking

Network

Spring 2011

Dear cyberfriends,

This letter is to announce to you my departure to Medellin, Colombia, in order to serve the neediest of the Colombian society, the children and the elderlies! This will take place on 3^rd March 2011. It is since my childhood that I have been waiting for this moment, because while very young I dreamt to go as a missionary in an exotic land just like Colombia, when one looks at the various drawings I was making around the age of 7 or 8 years old. It wasn’t until the age of 40 that I changed drastically when I did theological studies in London. Until that time, I had been a sales rep, a profession that I had practiced for a number of years in the US and Switzerland.

Today, after a few years of teaching languages (French and English) in Barcelona, I find myself at a crossroad and I am preparing myself to go and live in Colombia to work as a volunteer for the SACIAR Foundation whose motto is: “A bridge between abundance and lack” and whose biblical base is: “Give them yourselves to eat” (Luke 9.13). This institution is located in Medellin, in the North Western part of the country, at 420 km from Bogota, the capital. I am looking forward to go and serve the ones that need help the most in the poorest neighbourhoods of the city where people suffer cruelly from the lack of everything due to the civil war and forced migrations of entire populations.

It’s been 5 years since I started collaborating with SACIAR part time from Europe, and the Direction is waiting for me with opened arms like a missionary ready to serve his neighbour. During the last few years, a school, as well as a Gymnasium have been built, thanks to this cooperation. The money in European or American currencies that we can give to the SACIAR Foundation are rapidly changed into millions of Colombian pesos (COP) and can do a lot.

Until now my work has consisted in collecting funds with the objective to build the above mentioned buildings. Since 1998, the Foundation has been able to build 20 Dining Rooms of the Heart. That way the bodies can be filled and satisfied just as the name of the Foundation indicates rightly: SACIAR = SATISFY. We estimate that as long as a single child is forced to remain naked and hungry in the streets living in a survival mode, we will not be able to let go of our efforts and will have to work towards the Millennium Development Objective (OMD) that is to end poverty by 2015, in accordance with the goal of the 189 States that had met in the year 2000 for that very purpose. It is only a question of solidarity towards the youngest and most vulnerable of the planet: the children and the elderly.

Once there, my mission will consist not only in continuing to promote the Foundation just like before, but also to teach languages to the children that are more than ready to learn in order to secure a future for themselves. For once out of the shanty town an education has to be given to these youngsters. My passion for languages, history and theology, as well as my experience in teaching will allow me also to share what I know with them. I will also be able to consecrate time for the translation of certain documents in English in order that you, English speaking friends, may receive the various documents of the work in English.

I would like also to ask you to include me in your prayers, because it is certain that I am going to need it. The task to which I am called will certainly be full of adventures and stories that only God knows for the moment and that we humans can only entrust unto him by faith. In advance I thank you for your attention in this matter.

Please, receive dear cyberfriends, my best greetings. May we cooperate together for a better world where peace, harmony and love can coexist for the sake of our own future together on beautiful planet earth.

Olivier Henri Udriot

08013 Barcelone/Spain

+34/628326899

P.S. the pictures of the latest work can be sent by email to whoever wants them. It has to do with the “Coliseo”, as it is called there, that is the Gymnasium in the neighbourhood “Alta de la Cruz” (Heights of the Cross) which was built this year thanks to your gifts of last year!

Because it is a voluntary long term commitment in favour of the street children and this without a salary, may I ask you to consider a regular financial support (sponsoring) whatever the monthly sum might be. Whatever gift on your part, dear cyberfriends, is welcomed and I thank you in advance for it.