Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
São Paulo (Agenzia Fides) – Unemployment, insecurity, lack of health care, illiteracy...all of these things are are present in many of the “favelas” of São Paulo, Brazil. Sister Annamaria Fornasiero, Missionary of the Immaculate (MI), working in the country, told Fides some of the MI initiatives being carried out to alleviate the suffering of many people.
"Our CENFIRC (Irmã Rita Cavenaghi Training Center) lies in the great southern neighborhood of the metropolis of São Paulo, a city full of two extremes, rich and poor together,” says Sr. Annamaria. “There is a lack of schools, public spaces for leisure, sports and cultural facilities... Many children aged two to fourteen years old cannot attend school as the schools are not prepared to accommodate them all. It was in one of the many favelas that our school was begun. Women who live in favelas (I refer to people with a minimum employment as a cleaning lady, laundry, ironing ...) often represent the only source of support for their children. The house becomes the place where the children are left alone, or are on the streets all day, and adults return only to sleep. There are many vendors who try to earn a living as they can. The homes are very modest, some built more with zinc siding, with wood or cardboard, and a few others may have a brick wall. Sewers are left uncovered and there are no zoning laws, as they are illegally used lands. The majority of the population is semi-illiterate, and comes from the northeast of the country, and social integration is not always simple. The government is absent, particularly in the field of public health, and most social activities come from religious and private non-profit bodies that are clearly not able to meet all the needs."
"In the social context described - continues Sr. Annamaria - the Parish “Pastoral da Saúde São Francisco Xavier,” a group of 20 people, has undertaken the task of preserving and protecting life. Visiting the families of the parish, we realized that the real poor are those who cannot access health services because they are just sick and immobilized by long illness or terminal patients. Over the past four years we have obtained the home care service for sixty bedridden patients. Patients are visited and accompanied by two teams of doctors and since about a month ago, a third team of nurses with a social worker has been visiting them.
"For our people this is a great sign of God's goodness, who watches over His children – especially the smaller ones, and over His poor who have no one to remember them," concludes Sr. Annamaria. (AF / AP) (Agenzia Fides 9/1/2010)
