The Salesian “Ciudad Don Bosco”, which includes various youth centres and a vocational training centre in the city of Amaga and Angelópolis in a predominantly mining area is in mourning following the explosion at 22:40 on Wednesday 16 June in the “San Joaquín” gallery in which 73 miners due to clock off were killed.
The Rector Fr Armando Álvarez, explained with great sadness: “We would never have imagined that in the San Fernando mine, considered the safest and most uptodate such a terrible thing could happen. But today a number of children and youngsters are orphans on account of the explosion.”
In a public ceremony in the main park in Amaga, the first victims recovered were buried. Bishop José Soleibe Arbeláez of the diocese of Caldas, presided at the funeral, concelebrated also by Fr Álvarez, who together with a team of social workers from the “Ciudad Don Bosco” had, from the beginning, been offering comfort and support to the families.
“Amaga is just one great painful wound” one of the teachers form the centre said, hearing the cries of so many people who in the mine lost their dear ones, often the only breadwinners for the whole family. “Thank God the Salesians are still here, and that is a reason to keep working for the future” he added.
Published 12/07/2010
