Sixty years ago, Father Theo Palmans (1921-2005), then provincial superior in charge of the Belgian Salvatorians, visited his young confreres-missionaries in Caracas, Venezuela. Deeply impressed by the great poverty in the slums of Caracas, he decided on his return to Belgium to take immediate action to combat poverty in the many barrios yonder.
He spoke about this with his confrère Fr Frans (Canisius) Driessen (1912-1981), someone with a fiery temperament and full of enthusiasm for missionary work. In 1963, both fathers decided to establish the Salvatorian Relief Action. Father Driessen was appointed its director. Thanks to his fiery sermons and the many begging letters he sent around, he managed to build a wide network of sympathisers and donors.
Over the past sixty years, the Salvatorian Relief Action continued to expand. Yet its objective has remained basically the same throughout all these years: 'To support projects of missionaries, development aid workers and NGOs in developing countries in the South, for the benefit of the local population'. In this way, the Salvatorian Relief Action wants to contribute to the structural improvement of the fate and social empowerment of the poorest. Incidentally, this is also the meaning of the word 'Salvator', 'Saviour', 'Saviour', 'Healer' and 'Aid Provider'. Hence the Salvatorian Relief Action is open to all. No one should be excluded because of origin, nationality, language, culture, religion, social status or orientation.
Thanks to the support of many donors, adoptive parents and the collection of second-hand clothes by our sister organisation Salvatorian Development Aid, the Salvatorian Aid Action has been able to realise thousands of wonderful projects and secure a bright future for more than 3,000 adopted children.
Heartfelt and sincere thank to all donors.
