Missionary Experiences – Page 52 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Prize for a Social Entrepreneur

12 November, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

Valdeci Antonio Ferreira is the founder of the Comboni Lay Missionaries in Brazil. He is 55 years old and 34 of them have been dedicated to prisoners.

After many years as head of the Assistance for the Protection of Prisoners (APACE) he is currently president of the Brazilian Fraternity of Assistance to Prisoners (FBAC). During this past weekend the daily paper Folha de São Paulo awarded him the prize of social entrepreneur for the system of humane incarceration.

Our sincerest congratulations to him and his cooperators.

May Comboni Always be the great intercessor in this journey towards Resurrection.

Lourdes, CLM Brazil

Folha de São Paulo

Valdeci Ferreira, of the FBAC, was given an award for the system of humane incarceration.

A volunteer for more than 30 years, Valdeci Ferreira of FBAC was recognized for the system of humane incarceration.

He is the leader of FBAC, a federation connected with APACS (Association for the Protection and Assistance of convicts). His mission is to spread this innovative methodology of resocialization of convicts, which aims at recovering the detainees, protect society, help the victims and promote restorative justice.

Receiving the prize, the entrepreneur said that, 34 years ago when he first visited a prison in Itaúna, MG, he could not have imagined receiving the main award of this evening. Visibly moved he said: “Life did not place rugs on my path for me to walk on, but rather stairs and today this is another stairway we are climbing. I need to share this moment with all those we were recovered by passing through APAC and with those who are still there and are the reason for our work and for what I had to give up in my life.”

One of them came up to the stage in his wheelchair. “Here in front of you is someone who went through APAC. I am a recovered individual and I believed in this man,” said Rinaldo Guimarães. “Valdeci always remembers a quote by St. Augustine: “Hope has two daughters: indignation and courage. Indignation is needed in order not to accept things as they are, and courage, like this man’s, to change things and make a difference,” he concluded.

In recognition of his work, Ferreira was elected as Social Entrepreneur of the Year among 100 candidates in the largest competition in the area of Latin America, organized by the Folha in cooperation with the Schwab Foundation.

It is estimated that more than 33 thousand Brazilian convicts have already passed through APACS, units of humanized prisons without arms or armed guards. This alternative system today houses 3,500 prisoners divided in 48 units across Brazil. This method is being tried in 19 other countries.

In 1972 this organization developed 12 elements such as work, the value of the person, legal assistance, family, meritocracy, and the principle of self-help in recuperation.

This method has suffered a mere 20% to 28% of recidivism versus the 85% of the common prison system with a cost of only one third of the regular prisons.

Ferreira ran for the grand prize against Bernardo Bonjean, 40, the leader of Avante, an organization offering credit and humanly acceptable terms for micro-businesses not accepted by the banks, and Ronaldo Lemos, 41, of the Institute of Technology and Society (ITS) which developed the application Cambiamos, a tool of direct democracy for the collection of digital signatures in favor of projects of popular empowerment.

Logbook of Simone Mongoumba

7 November, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

November 4, 2017

Day 261 Remaining 839

Hi to one and all, how are you? … Here all is well. I left Bangui in a hurry on August 19 continuing to study Sango directly in the field in Mongoumba… these three months have passed in a flash… here’s another song to help me express the immensity I have lived…

… LIKE A RIVER by the Nomads…

Mongoumba…

IT SMELLS OF AFRICA, LIKE DREAMS MADE OF DIRT AND MUD, LIKE THE FEET OF A TIRED MAN WALKING, KNOWING THAT THIS LIFE IS BUT A JOURNEY, A ROAD OF WHICH YOU DON’T KNOW THE END, EVEN IF SOME DAY IT MAY LEAD YOU SOMEWHERE, IN THE VLAAGES OF STRANDED HOUSES, WHERE LIVING IS AN ALL OUT STRUGGLE.

Sunday, October 22. THE ROAD LED ME TO MOLABAYE, only seven miles from Mongoumba, like Emmaus to Jerusalem, in a two hour walk: 6:15-8:15 AM! It isn’t that the houses are built along the ROAD, but rather the ROAD meanders through the SCATTERED HOMES, made of DIRT AND MUD, WHERE LIVING IS AN ALL OUT STRUGGLE! It’s only 6:15, but everyone is awake and life begins. Some grind manioc to prepare a bit of food, others weave bamboo to be sold for some cash, others yet make bricks of DIRT AND MUD to build a house, some are bathing the children with a little bit of water in a pail, the barefooted children play with a ball made of woven leaves! The rhythm of the journey is slow… LIKE A RIVER, because everyone comes to greet me and from a distance, as soon as they see me, the children start jumping and yelling: “BWA, BWA, BWA (father)” or “MUNGIU, MUNGIU, MUNGIU,” which I think comes from “Bonjour, White man, and line up, shake hands, smiles aplenty, greetings left and right… There will be many JOURNEYS on this ROAD and in the LIFE of these people, because I have been given the pastoral care of the Southern sector of the parish… four chapels: Molabaye, Gouga, Ikoumba 1, and Ikoumba 2…

MANY TIMES I MET HIM DOWN AT THE MARKET, WITH THE FIGHTING SPIRIT THAT POSSESSES HIM, WITH THE WARRING SPIRIT OF A SOLDIER, WHO GETS UP 100 TIMES WHEN HE FALLS, KNOWING HE WILL RISE WITH A HUNDRED MORE, WHOM IN THE FIELDS HE SAW BEING BORN AND DIE, JUST AS A GUST OF WIND IS BORN AND DIES, HOPE AND THE YEARNING TO TELL THE STORY.

Here it’s a STRUGGLE. Fr. Alex Zanotelli would say that it is the STRUGGLE between the God of life and the System of death oppressing the Republic of Central Africa! Our battlefields, where we experience our human limitations. There are five Health centers spread around the parish, small clinics and pharmacies we try to visit regularly. One of them is in Safa Tavares. Moms arrive with their undernourished babies, we weigh them, measure them, make the PB test (measuring the girth of the arm, give them an appetite test with a little bag of PumplyNut (looks like very nutritional peanut butter), prescribe medicines and evaluate whether the child is slowly and with all our efforts is getting better. On paper, these operations are easy and simple, but the babies squirm, scream, yell with all the FIGHTING SPIRIT THAT POSSESSES THEM, they show all their SOLDIER’S WARRING SPIRIT, as a sign that they are full of life, they want to fight and struggle!

Mongoumba

IT HAS THE LOOK… OF THE WIVES, OF THE MOTHERS WHO EVERY NIGHT AWAIT WORRYING THE MORNING, AND EACH MORNING AWAIT FOR THE EVENING AND NEVER KNOW WHETHER TO LAUGH OR TO PRAY TO SOME GOD WHO’S LOOKING THROUGH THE WINDOW, FOR AT TIMES GOD DOESN’T KNOW WHAT TO LISTEN TO, AND DECEITFULLY MOVES ITS HEAD.

THE MOTHERS’ LOOK speaks… even though our languages are different! Often the MOTHERS’ LOOK screams “my child is sick… do something, please!” By the MOTHERS’ LOOK we already know the result of our struggle! Here the cold statistics of infant mortality take flesh, have a name, a face! At times at night we hear the screams of inconsolable mothers echoing from the hospital… “A cry was heard, a great cry and lamentation: Rachel crying over her children and does not want to be consoled…” (Mt 2:18) What words can bring consolation to a helpless mother who sees her child die?

There are mothers praying from morning to night… the refrain of the song sounds like the cry of the women to God… “TO THE LORDS OF WAR WE GIVE BLOOD, BECAUSE IT IS A BLOOD THAT WILL FLOW FAR, LIKE A RIVER CROSSING A CONTINENT AND INVADING THE OTHERS EVER SO SLOWLY.”

OFTEN I HAVE MET IT IN THE SLUMS, IN THE ALLEYS IN BETWEEN PALACES,

LIKE A BEAM OF LIGHT TARGETING THE BAREFOOTED CHILDREN, AND THERE ONCE AGAIN IT TIGHTENS ITS FISTS AND AGAIN IT RUNS TO FIGHT,

IT HAS A HORSE FASTER THAN THE WIND, A WIND WHICH IS ABOUT TO CHANGE.

The children provide the rhythm of our day… they are our clock… after morning Mass you here their chattering in the yard, time to finish the tea and start school at 7:30… silence: everyone is at school… cries of joy: it’s recess at 10:30… silence: everyone is in school again… cries of joy: school is over at 12:30, time to eat! After a time of silence, tiny heads and inquiring eyes POP UP at the window, you raise your head and they are gone, FASTER THAN THE WIND, and you hear them RUNNING BAREFOOT down the verandah whispering “Augustaaa, Annaaa, Simoneee.” Then everything disappears and it is time for night prayers and the mothers’ prayer becomes our own… “TO THE LORDS OF WAR WE GIVE BLOOD, BECAUSE IT IS A BLOOD THAT WILL FLOW FAR, LIKE A RIVER CROSSING A CONTINENT AND INVADING THE OTHERS EVER SO SLOWLY.”

… because God KNOWS WHAT AND WHOM TO LISTEN TO!!!

Let’s hope the WIND WILL INDEED CHANGE!!!

Greetings, hugs, a kiss, a prayer and THANK YOU… I almost feel like wishing you Merry Christmas, because I don’t know when I will be able to get out of Mongoumba again!

Bye-bye

Simone CLM

On the way to Meet You

5 November, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

On August 17, my seven companions of the group Faith and Mission and I left Lisbon for a long journey to the airport of Nampula, Mozambique. It was not a vacation, but the beginning of a month-long missionary experience in the Comboni community of Carapira. Now that I am on my way back to Portugal, I can only say that it was an unforgettable month that has placed Mozambique in my heart forever.

The main focus of our mission was the Technical Industrial Institute of Carapira (ITIC), where we took part in many activities, each according to his or her own gift. In my case, being a Math student, I had the chance to help in the revision of the accounts, in teaching and in clarifying students’ doubts during the night sessions. Our mission, however, was not limited to the ITIC, because we were asked also to do some teaching to the girls at the Comboni Sisters’ boarding school and we were also able to take part in various pastoral activities, such as visits to the communities, to the sick and others. Despite the large number of activities, what made this month so significant was not the little I gave, but how much I received and learned in Carapira.

Welcoming and sharing are two words holding much of the magic of this mission month. It is incredible how the missionary community of Carapira – fathers, brothers, sisters, and lay people – opened its doors to receive us, to offer us a cup of coffee or to help whenever it was needed.

In my contacts with the people I perceived that such availability and willingness to share is what better describes the Makua with a rich culture very much at odds with ours… While in Europe life is full of stress and people get upset at the slightest delay, for example, waiting for a bus that is late, in Carapira I met people who do not live in a hurry, who know how to be and contemplate. The truth is that during my first weeks in Carapira I found it rather difficult to adapt to the culture and to its rhythm. But it was well worthwhile, because this slowing down brought me to rethink my style of life and to find this interior silence that helps us to listen to the will of God.

To be part of this community was another great challenge I had to face. During the month we were eight young people 100% joined in community. We ate together, we prayed together, we worked together… It was a routine far different to the one I am used to, because I left home when I entered the university and got used to a rather independent and solitary life… Adaptation was not easy, because in community living there are always situations leading to make mistakes – it is enough to be a little too tired and say the wrong word that will cause resentment. These situations are unavoidable and they did come up occasionally, but we were always able to get over them thanks to the power of prayer, which helped us to be more in tune with God, “to die daily in order to go against our will,” as a song we like a lot says, and to be able to forgive.

For anyone coming from a country like Portugal, it is sad to see how the majority of the population of Mozambique lives in a situation of great poverty. And it is even worse to realize that, for the most part, the mentality of the rich countries is responsible for this poverty. For instance, walking through the barrios I was often surprised to hear, “mucunha [white person], I need money.” In time, however, I realized that many “mucunha” help by giving money only to relieve their conscience, without trying to create the means people need to come out of poverty and stop begging. But I was happy to see right there the great and constant flow of charity and love for neighbor done by the Comboni family, faithful to Comboni’s slogan, “to save Africa with Africa.”

I could say a lot more about this “landing” in Carapira. I could speak of the fantastic beauty I found on our visits to the beaches of the Island of Mozambique, or of the great feast for our departure, or of many other good things. But what is most important is what I keep in my heart, and it cannot be put into words…

I thank God for having had the opportunity to experience all this.

Mozambique, let us keep united in friendship and in prayer.

Rúben Sousa (Portugal)

Summer school project in Bushulo (Ethiopia)

2 November, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

During summer time/rain season in Ethiopia, the students doesn’t have regular classes, but it is quite popular to organize summer school or other activities for the kids.

This year also CLM in Ethiopia were involved in such a program. Tobiasz was coordinating the project and invited the rest of the community to take part in it. Over 80 kids participated in the school during 3 weeks. They had different topics related mostly to health – nutrition, HIV/AIDS, first aid, hygiene etc.

CLM Ethiopia

The story of Aman

30 October, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

A few months ago, 12-years old Aman, after falling from a tree injured his spinal cord. His family brought him to us as the last place where they could receive some help. Unfortunately the damage was so serious that we were medically unable to do anything. Only we could try to get a wheelchair for him so he can become more independent. There is one organization in Awassa that distributes orthopedic equipment, so together with Aman we went there, full of hope. Unfortunately they could not help us. I was so disappointed… So the boy went home without anything … After a few weeks I visited this organization again and found out they have a new delivery of wheelchairs! However, I had no contact to Aman (most of our patients do not have a permanent address, phone number, or any other means of finding them). I felt really bad with it, that the chance to help the boy appeared too late, and now I probably never will meet him again… But God is reliable! I recently visited another child in hospital and how great was my surprise and disbelief when I saw Aman’s smiling face on the bed next to me! It turned out that he was getting discharged from the hospital the same day, so his mom willingly accepted the offer to come to our center (where we would continue to treat bedsores for which he was hospitalized) and at the same time try to get equipment for him. The next day Aman was with us, so we went to ask about the wheelchair. And we heard – “We are very sorry, but unfortunately we have no more …”. And such a cry in my soul – “Lord, this boy has already been disappointed once, now you put him again on my way, so please help!” And a moment later – “Although we have one wheelchair, which for a few weeks no one picked up, so if it fits can you get” And of course it fitted perfectly! How great was Aman’s joy when he started to go around the center 🙂 And how great was my joy and gratitude to God for this miracle! For the fact that I met this boy again, for having arranged a wheelchair for him and it’s so immediate, because normal waiting process lasts 2 months 🙂 And also a lesson of trust for me that God never let us down and that He also knows better when it is good time to have something happen.

Madzia, CLM in Ethiopia