We leave you a video published by Justiça nos Trilhos where we can see the progress of the struggle of a simple community against a large extractive company.
A struggle that the Comboni family has been accompanying for years.
You can also read and watch a video subtitled in Spanish in “El País”.
Since March when the powerful cyclone Gombe hit Carapira in northern Mozambique, destroying houses and farms. We, the CLM, have been working to alleviate the suffering of the population. Always in partnership with friends and people with good hearts.
With the help received from Brazil it was possible to carry out small projects. Among them the seeds project.
This Wednesday, November 23rd, we started the first phase of this project, which consists of delivering 5 kg of corn and 3 kg of beans to the most vulnerable families for planting.
The benefited families have the commitment to return the same amount received at harvest time, so that we can continue the project.
The Carapira Parish is composed of 94 communities divided into 5 regions with 22 zones. We chose to make the delivery in each zone to facilitate the access of the families.
The second phase will be on the 29th of this month. And the third will be at the beginning of December.
In this project there are more than 300 families contemplated.
On behalf of the families and the people of Carapira, I thank everyone who generously gave a little of what they have to help those who have even less.
God bless you all.
CLM Carapira
At the meeting of GEC (Comboni Spirituality Group) São José Operário Parish – Carapina/Serra/ES held last night (11/21/2022), we had the presence of Father Xavier.
He told us his life and mission story, details and curiosities about the projects carried out in Santa Rita, a city on the outskirts of João Pessoa in Paraíba.
Chico started the project with recyclable material collectors, Father Xavier joined the project and started working with children and teenagers, daughters and sons of the collectors and other residents of the neighborhood.
His words echoed in our hearts. A life story where we find faith incarnate. Total giving.
Autor: Tranquilo Dias, Grupo de Espiritualidade Comboniana da Paróquia São José Operário/Espírito Santo
It is time for another assembly of the Rural Family House, an association formed by country people, ex-students and people who believe in this proposal. The Comboni family present in Açailândia is part of this project, being directly involved Dida and Xoán, Liliana and Flávio, and Fr. Joseph.
The house offers a three-year technical course in agriculture and cattle raising, combined with high school, through the alternating cycle pedagogy.
There is a song that says: “I won’t leave the countryside to go to school. Education in the countryside is a right, not a handout.”
The goal of this space is exactly this! By enabling young people from the countryside to improve the profitability of family property, we reduce the rural exodus and promote family farming, also inserting agro-ecological techniques.
The school serves students from Açailândia, neighboring towns, and also from more distant cities, with students from three different states (Maranhão, Pará and Tocantins).
In the debate about the challenges faced by the school and that involve financial costs, one of the mothers present pointed out, “We are an association, we can collaborate and with the little of each one, we will get what is necessary.”
And so we go sowing in the collective construction the search for better conditions for farmers and peasants, and with this generate a seed of a better world.
CLM Brazil
Retreat with the theme “Comboni Spirituality and the social commitment of the Church” in the diocese of Balsas/Maranhão – Brazil.
The Comboni Missionaries have left the diocese of Balsas in 2017, after 65 years of presence, marked by many achievements, both in the life of the communities, in the formation of leaders, as well as in the social part and in the infrastructure of the city itself.
Dom Valentim Meneses, the current bishop who took over the diocese in 2020, after the death of the previous bishop, invited the Comboni Missionaries to organize a retreat for the leaders of the communities, highlighting the social commitment of the church.
Thus, the Comboni family present in Piquiá/Maranhão, with the support of the Comboni spirituality groups (GEC) present in Balsas, organized the retreat in 2 different locations, to enable better participation.
On September 17, 2022 (Saturday), the first one was held in the city of Pastos Bons (280 km from Balsas), with the participation of about 25 persons. It was a very rich day of sharing and remembering the journey of the communities, and rekindling the commitment of faith, inspired by the Comboni charism.
On the following day (Sunday) the retreat was held in the city of Balsas, with the participation of more than 50 persons, with the assistance of the diocesan bishop in the reflection of the theme. He encouraged that the spirituality that we assume as Christians, regardless of what it is, should lead us, more than having faith in Jesus, to have the faith of Jesus. This makes the difference, since it prevents us from creating a logic that serves our personal interests and wills, keeping us in the logic of the Kingdom of God.
In both moments we had a video of Regimar and Valmir, sharing their first 5 months of presence in Mozambique and the challenges faced by the population with the Gombe Cyclone.
The GECs of Piquiá, Pastos Bons and Balsas shared about their meetings and invited those present to be part of the journey of deepening of faith and missionary commitment, as a concrete gesture of this retreat.
It was a rich moment of missionary animation, inspired by the charism of St. Daniel Comboni!
Did you like the idea of having a Comboni Spirituality Group (CSG) in your community or parish? Would you like to know how to organize one? Contact us through our email leigosmcbrasil@gmail.com or by the WhatsApp of the Comboni Missionaries +551197956-8317.
CLM Brazil
