PARAGUAY, Ani Souberlich. There are countless organisations in Paraguay that work for people in bitter poverty, either in the field of education, health, or accommodation, but it never seems to be enough. There isn’t enough to give families a roof over their heads, or to keep the children off the streets. There is just not enough to stop children and adults walking hopelessly down the streets …
The need in our Latin American countries is so immense thanks to the bad and corrupt administration of our governments, so that the vast majority are forced to live not just in poverty, but in destitution.
That is why a small group of people has started going to AREGUA, a suburb of Asuncion, where families are living who came from the interior in the hope of a better future – and who now find themselves on the street.
There they push four rods into the ground and spread plastic bags over them to make a roof and four walls.
Thirty houses for thirty families
It will soon be winter in Paraguay. Thanks be to God that we don’t have to compare it with the cold in Europe or the USA, but in the mornings it can be as cold as 7ºC. So a group of six committed young members of the Church have set to work with the idea of helping thirty families to build simple houses for themselves.
Thirty simple houses … now. Thanks to some generous donations from the people it has been possible to buy some building materials, but we still lack a great deal. To be precise we lack 6000 Euros, that is, 200 Euros per house. And we just don’t have so much. What next?
Fr Kentenich’s “Vila Nobre de Caridad”
Joao Pozzobon, the “saint of the new evangelisation” built the “Vila Nobre de Caridad”, the “noble village of charity”, a settlement close to the shrine at Santa Maria. This was his way of implementing the message of Puebla, the “option for the poor”, drawn up by the plenary session of the Latin American Bishops’ Conference. “From the shrine to the poor” was his motto calling the campaign of the Pilgrim Mother to social commitment.
It was a very special moment when someone in the group, a member of the Schoenstatt Movement, said, “Perhaps Fr Kentenich can build the houses for our families.”
How? There are five great treasures – five holy cards with a sentence written by Fr Kentenich personally on each. They are not a copy or a printed reproduction; they are originals. As soon as the necessary amount of money has been gathered, five names will be drawn and these people will receive one of these treasured pictures.
Even now we want to thank the people who initiated this project, and for the generosity of Fr Kentenich. …
Original: Spanish. Translation: Mary Cole, Manchester, England
