(ANS - Puerto Nuevo) - On 16 July 2015, as part of the activities of the "Children of Lead" Project, supported by the Don Bosco in the World Foundation, more than eighty children and young people of the community of Puerto Nuevo, launched a campaign to reduce environmental pollution. It is called "Sowing Oxygen", a name that for this community means a way of life, relationships, and above all, survival.

Children and adolescents of the "Children of Lead" project have been walking the streets of their community, planting seedlings in areas that have no green spaces. The purpose of the initiative is to sensitize citizens to the environment, and help reduce pollution in the area. The campaign, promoted by the Salesian community of Puerto Nuevo, aims in this way to recall and implement the message of Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato si on the care of common home.

The project is called "Children of Lead", because Puerto Nuevo is a settlement located in the district of Callao, in the province of the same name, where the population is contaminated by lead, as a result of the environmental damage generated by the storage and transportation of the ore to the port.

Most of the children participating in the project "Children of Lead" have levels of lead in their blood of between 10 and 19.9 micrograms per decilitre. This level is considered highly dangerous by the health authorities, and can cause, among other consequences, delays in cognitive skills of children. Children make up a large part of the population served by the Oratory and the "Children of Lead" project, supported by the Don Bosco in the World Foundation and carried out by the House of Youth in Puerto Nuevo, managed by Fr Marino De Pra, SDB.

Published 23/07/2015