Christmas, the feast of love and community. It may still take a while until that much-awaited celebration will take place here in Brazil, but we are already preparing two very nice projects for Christmas.
The first project is called "Natal sem fome", which means Christmas without hunger.Purpose of this project, which we already successfully organized in the past couple of years, is to collect as much food as possible, pack it in small packets and then distribute those packets to needy families throughout the city at Christmas. This project requires a great deal of organization and therefore the Christmas spirit ruled in our organization in November.
The second project is similar to "Secret Santa". We collect names and addresses of old, sick and lonely people all over the city and write them on little homemade hearts. In early December we will hang these hearts up in church, so everyone can take one of these hearts. Anyone who has taken a heart, visits a person or a family on the heart at Christmas and maybe even bring a small gift. So we try to reach that the residents feel a little bit closer each other at Christmas time.
(picture: ready "christmas-presents")
(picture: the packing of the food)
This month we were also able to complete two Mutiroes. These are community works in which our Mutirão-group meets on a particular day to help a poor family with works the family can't do by themselves.
One Mutirão took place in Araruna, at the house of a poor family which only had one bedroom for the parents and four children. Through the extension of a small room to the house, the living situation of the family could be greatly improved.
The other community work took place in the outlying Mata Velha, where a family that had no direct access to water. They waited a long time for the construction of a cistern, but did not have the money to pay for construction workers. That is why we organized a Mutirão for this family and completed the cistern.
(picture: community work in Araruna)
(picture: almost ready cistern)
At the end of the month a two-day course of cultivation of fruit trees took place in the organization. The participants were given both practical tips on how to grow crops, they learned to speak freely in front of a group and finally they were given advice how to finance and market products better.
It was mainly our beekeepers who took part in this course.
(picture: course of cultivation of fruit trees)
(picture: exercise to speek freely and to present a topic in front of the others)
Finally in November Padre Christian Muffler visited us. He initiated the first projects here in Araruna about 13 years ago and thus laid the foundation for our organization. He celebrated two masses in Araruna, spoke to the Mutirão-group and visited many people in Araruna.
We wish you all a merry Christmas.
(picture: Father Christian Muffler, always surrounded of people)
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