All over the world millions of children, because of poverty, do not have access to proper schooling. This Christmas, Sacmi has decided to do something tangible about this situation: while the festive season means celebration, presents and family reunions, it is also the time to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate.
Hence Sacmi’s funding of the Literary Centre in Sauce, a small, poor town of 9,000 inhabitants that lies in the province of Corrientes, in Argentina. Here, seven people out of ten are illiterate: children and teenagers rarely complete their schooling, leaving at a young age to work and support their families.
The parish of Sauce, well aware of this “distress and neglect”, decided to set up a Literacy Centre “where adults, youngsters and children can learn to read and write and participate properly in their society and culture”. The centre operates on a flexible timetable that is compatible with working hours and can thus be used by the entire population.
Once again Sacmi has underlined, through concrete action, a vocation for mutual assistance and the fact that, while it has become hugely successful, it remains attentive to a more even distribution of resources: especially where, as is the case here, the objective is a noble one like education. “Because education”, points out Sacmi, “is the root of personal dignity and the only chance for a better future. Because a child’s smile is a sunbeam that lights up the street, that warms our hearts”.