St. Vincent de Paul Society – St. François d’Assise conference

By Brigid Alty


Kraainem (19 August 2006).- 

The St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVP) was founded in the 19th century, by a law student Fréderic Ozanam. He responded to atheistic criticism, demanding what Christians were doing to alleviate the dire poverty in post-revolutionary Paris. Many of you are familiar with the SVP where you have come from and you may have been members of local conferences? Owing to the nature of our transient community, we don’t have a conference actually in the Parish.(Yet!) 

Quite a few of our Parishioners are involved with the L’Olivier drop in centre for Refugees in Brussels and we also have a conference (a small group who meet regularly and visit people) with very close links to L’Olivier. 

We’re a small group of 8-10 people, including two of us from this Parish. We meet monthly,and we visit people in their own homes following referrals from L’Olivier. The families we visit come literally from all over the world. The families I visit at the moment are from Kosovo, Sierra Leone (in English!), Mauritania, Congo and Rwanda. The people we visit usually have no income whatsoever. Their CPAS (social security) has been cut and they are in the process of appealing against a refusal to be allowed to stay in Belgium. This often takes years. The only official help most of our families receive is payment of medical costs.

If possible, we sometimes help financially towards fuel bills or towards the rent or with school costs, such as school dinners, as this may be the child’s only chance to have a decent meal. Some of the accommodation we visit is appalling, with many families sharing unsafe and unsavoury kitchen and bathroom facilities.
We rely completely on donations and fundraising events. St. Anthony’s Parish helps us an annual charity collection and our Mother’s Prayers ladies have recently helped a lady I visit. Some of our Parishioners work in the SVP vestiare (clothes depot) also. If you are interested in helping out at the drop-in centre, or in the conference, or helping in any other way, please contact either Chris Guichot de Fortis or myself. You’ll be made very welcome and it’s great practice for your French!

Brigid Alty Email: peter.alty@belgacom.net
Or Chris de Fortis, Email: fb177276@skynet.be 

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