PARAGUAY, Fr. Pedro Kühlcke •
2019 has been very special for our dear “House Mother of Tuparenda,” for its participants and those of us who support it! –
We always had beautiful achievements
We always had beautiful achievements, especially with the participants who graduated and later tell us happily of their new lives as professionals. I will never forget the call of one of our graduates who very surprised told me: “Father, at work they told me not to come to work for two weeks and that I would still get paid! I don’t understand what’s happening.” It happened that after completing the program at House Mother of Tuparenda (CMT), he had already worked for an entire year as a professional baker with excellent performance, so he was entitled to the two weeks’ vacation. For many of us, that is something very obvious, but for a youth who had always lived on the street and in misery, it was a totally new experience: a vacation! – a time without working but still drawing a salary.
We also always had difficulties and great challenges
We also had difficulties and great challenges. The greatest has always been how to keep solvent with the great expenses required by this so beneficial program. The Ministry of Justice supported us generously, but it was never enough. Thanks to events, activities, etc., we could meet a few more of the expenses. But if it had not been for the generosity of so many benefactors, CMT would have had to shut its doors quite some time ago!
This year was especially difficult because the Ministry of Justice informed us, they would no longer be able to finance our program. It was a hard blow, totally unexpected! But Blessed Mother knows how SHE does things: thanks to the initiative of our director, Ani Souberlich, and our number one collaborator, Maria Fischer, they achieved getting many benefactors who assumed the commitment to sponsor one or several of the CMT benefitted youths (donations coming in from Paraguay, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Bolivia). Thanks be to God and to all of them, we were able to continue functioning all these months with no state support.
Help from the Ministry of Labor
Of course, we also asked ourselves what other steps God and Blessed Mother wanted us to take so that CMT could be kept up. Praying a great deal and applying the teachings of Father Kentenich according to Practical Faith in Divine Providence, we discovered that we had to advance in two important aspects.
On the one hand, since the Ministry of Justice had no more funds to support us, we decided to seek help in the Ministry of Labor. They received us with open arms and with a great deal of interest in our program. They understood that in CMT we are developing a very effective labor insertion for youths who come from a marginalized and an extremely exclusion environment. After many negotiations and long procedures, we were able to sign a Contract, and with much joy and relief, in mid-November we received a very significant economic payment.
Dr. José Martín Massolo, president of Fundaprova, added: “That description of our year is very exact. It is impressive how Blessed Mother tells us over and over again, ego diligentis me diligo. I only want to add that the support from the Ministry – for budget reasons – does not include the scholarships we give to the boys and that it is a fundamental factor for committing them to the program and removing them from activities and the world of delinquency. For that, thanks to you, we continue needing everyone’s generous support. A hug for everyone and a very happy Christmas.”
Toward self-support
On the other hand, for a long time we have been caressing the dream of self-support for our program. How wonderful it would be to found a business which would give dignified work to some of our graduates and which would help to finance the CMT! With the eyes of practical faith in Divine Providence, we saw that it was the moment to begin to make this dream a reality. The “Kindermissionswerk” of the German Catholic Church committed to finance the equipment for a professional bakery as a first step in this dream. Thanks be to God, we were also able to get some important donations to help with the beginning of the construction and with the Blessing of God and Blessed Mother, on Thursday, November 12th, we were able to have the “ground breaking” for this work, as our lawyer, Ricardo Acosta, relates in the other article.
Without you, the House Mother of Tuparenda would not have survived and we would not be able to be where we are now!
I want to especially thank all our benefactors, all of you who in different ways support us, because you believe that those youths deserve a better and more dignified future. Without you, the House Mother of Tuparenda would not have survived and we would not be able to be where we are now! Please, do not stop supporting us! We need to finish the work and we need that CMT can also continue functioning next year, and many more years after that!
Know that you are always in our prayers and count on our gratitude and a great “May God reward you!
Father Pedro Kühlcke
