A PARISH IN THE DAILY LIFE OF THE POOR PEOPLE Pueblo Nuevo El Agustino, -

1. Francisco Chamberlain, S.J.

In 1968, the Jesuits of Peru, at the quest of the then Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Landázuri Ricketts, founded the La Virgen de Nazaret Parish in the El Agustino district to the east of the centre of the city of Lima. The parish now attends to an area with 130,000 inhabitants.

El Agustino was the first of the large shantytowns in the expansion of Lima caused by the internal migration from the countryside to the city which started in the 1940`s and which still continues. (It should be remembered that in the middle of the 1940’s Lima had a population of barely one million; it now has around seven and a half million). The first inhabitants of El Agustino were contemptuously called “invaders” because as they were poor and homeless, they set down their shacks on the arid hills around the crop fields which still existed in the 40’s. Little by little, over the following decades, with the migratory pressure the uncultivated and the cultivated land become occupied by new poor “invaders”, mainly from the rural mountainous areas of Peru. This process of land occupation only came to an end at the end of the 1980’s; there was no more free land, neither on the hills nor on the flat parts.

The parish was founded 20 years after the district was started. What it found was complete chaos: narrow, winding alleys, houses made of matting and others made into fragile constructions of adobe, without electricity, water or sewerage. The demands for some planning grew in the neighbour’s associations, particularly in the flat part of the district. This demand was recently met in 1969 by the then military government of General Velasco (unfortunately the hill houses, which housed 25% of the population, did not meet the conditions for an urban planning). From 1969 until the end of the seventies the various neighbourhoods in the flat areas entered by stages into a process called “remodelling”. This consisted of using bulldozers to demolish everything that had been built and then using lime to delimit plots for houses and for the streets. Again the affected population had to live in shacks and start little by little to build their houses with more solid material and start to process the water, electricity and sewerage services. This process lasted ten years and left a profound mark on the parish. A process which directly involved 8,000 families (45,000 people).

The first Jesuits who arrived at El Agustino did not have a readymade work plan. They started of course with the normal services and activities of any parish, but they also wanted to be close to the population in their daily struggle to survive. This desire to be close to the people was put into practice by accompanying the population during the totally conflictive remodelling process. Conflicts for different reasons. First of all conflict with the Government. The Government architects proposed plots of 120 square metres. Some settlers thought that this was too small; others that it was too much. Too much because this measurement, and not a smaller one, increased the number of “surplus” persons and families who had to leave the neighbourhood and be re-housed in another place because the regulations envisaged less plots than the number of families who lived in the neighbourhood in overcrowded conditions. Another conflict with the Government was the subject of the “surplus” people. About 30 to 35% of the families who lived in the area had to be re-housed in another place. But where? The Government proposed to “re-house” the excess in uncultivated land far away to the south of the city, which in effect deprived many settlers of their way of making a living for their families at the central market of Lima, bordering El Agustino.

Thus a conflict with the State throughout the 70s with marches to the presidential palace and to congress for the expropriation of land near the “remodelled” neighbourhoods. The parish Jesuits accompanied the population in these fair demands. In short, the result of these demands was the expropriation of land much closer to the old neighbourhoods which allowed the “surplus” people to place their dwellings within the borders of El Agustino.

The process was also conflictive within the population. Who is going to stay and who is going to be considered “surplus”? This caused long and often acrimonious debates at the settlers’ meetings. The Jesuits, without being the leaders and without aiming to control the debate, helped the population to prepare certain basic criteria in order to classify the people: years in the neighbourhood, degree of necessity (poverty), age of the parents, number of children and their ages, etc.

The remodelling process had a profound impact on the life of the parish, its way of being present and inserted in the life of the people, its way of presenting the good news of the Gospel, its pastoral style, in the daily struggle of the poor.

At the end of the 70s, the endemic economic crisis in the country was felt more intensely: the lack of work, the spread of tuberculosis and infant malnutrition. On the initiative of the parish and with the significant support of the Episcopal Committee for Social Action (Comisión Episcopal de Acción Social (CEAS), in January 1979 one of the first popular dining halls in the country was set up. From its beginning the Parish understood that this organisation of women had to be autonomous, an organisation of the mothers from the neighbourhood who came together and fought together to bring down the cost of their families’ food. The parish and later the El Agustino Educational Services (Servicios Educativos El Agustino (SEA), NGO promoted by the Jesuits and whose name is still in the parish, provided support and advice to this new women’s initiative.

From the start and still now, the popular dining halls are a presence that marks the district of El Agustino, like in all of the popular districts in Lima and the country. The women of El Agustino have shown considerable leadership in the movement of the

2 popular dining halls in the city and in the country. The first Chair of the Federation of Popular Dining Halls in Lima (Federación de Comedores Populares de Lima), founded in 1991, was a lady from El Agustino, manager of its organisation and active in the grassroots Christian community. The third Chair of the federation was also a lady from El Agustino, and today the Chair of the recently set up national federation of popular dining halls is a lady from our area. This is an indicator of the quality of the advice and training provided by the parish and by SEA to the women. The dining halls have served as a platform for the insertion of the popular woman into the public scene of the districts, the city of Lima and the country.

At the end of the 80s, on an initiative of a member of the religious order the Hijas del Espíritu Santo, two children’s houses were set up to help the children with their primary school work and to offer them a place for recreation and human and Christian training. The two children’s houses, situated at two geographically strategic points in the area, help over 600 boys and girls to grow up in a healthy and humane environment.

Also at the end of the 80s the parish promoted the creation of a Fe y Alegría college. The college is managed with commendable devotion by the Dominican order. The college now has 1700 primary and secondary students and it is without doubt the best school in the area.

The impressive work should also be mentioned done by the parish social worker: attending to disabled children, with physical and mental handicaps. With the generous support of a Dutch foundation, the cost of operations and medical care of over 80 children has been covered, so that these youngsters can have get ahead in life.

In the last five years the Parish has started working to rescue and socially insert marginalised and unsettled youngsters (between 15 and 30 years old), who form part of anti-social gangs. With a group of these youngster, currently 120, the Martin Luther King Association has been set up which seeks to reinsert these gang members to the social and economic life of the local community, thus generating life alternatives that open up a healthy and productive life for these young people. For this the parish has had the support of various social organisations from the El Agustino district, the district municipal authorities, the police and the support of SEA. This work consists of: 1) Human and social training workshops which open up to the young people their reincorporation into the civic life of the area; 2) Educational and documentation recuperation of the young people; 3) Leadership training for those young people capable of themselves leading the self-help groups and to exercise influence over the other youths trapped in the vicious cycle of gangs; 4) the generation of employment and economic projects that offer healthy ways of living and surviving; 5) Actions in favour of the local community (like cleaning rubbish tips) which allow the youths to project a new image vis-à-vis the local community.

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This brief summary could give the impression that the parish is nothing more than a social action agency. But this is not the case. The social projection of the parish is the result of the express announcement of the God of Life. An announcement expressed in the preparation programmes for the sacraments, at the youth training school, at the annual theology curse, at the 18 masses celebrated every weekend at the 12 chapels in the parish, at the 20 annual 3–day retreats for adults and young people, at the annual marches in favour of life and peace during the times of violence of the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso), and now at the annual memorial and victims’ redress act (in El Agustino more than 70 people died during these terrible years), in the more than 60 grassroots communities of young people and adults who meet every week to share their life, think and pray about the Sunday Gospel of that week, preaching that seeks that the Gospel is a true light and encouragement in the hard journey of our poor people.

In El Agustino there is plenty of life! It can also be, and often is, conflictive. Not all of those living in El Agustino are saints. Life can be hard and frustrating and also tedious. But in the midst of the conflict and the hardship and the tedium of life, are simple expressions of happiness and commitment to life. El Agustino is all of this. What it is not is boring.

2. Diodora Maslucan Gonas

My experience of commitment to faith and justice as two realities that are mutually appealing.

Before answering the questions I want to thank God and "Chiqui" for giving me the opportunity to share my experience in the community of the 2ª Etapa de la Cooperativa Huancayo - El Agustino since 1999, an experience that has filled my life and each day makes me happy to do it strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit. My name is Diodora Maslucan Gonas, and at 47 years old I am divorced with two children (my son Oscar is 21 and my daughter Ruth is 11 years old). I have been attending the "Príncipe de Paz" Presbyterian Evangelical Church for 7 years.

When I arrived to live on 27th January 1999 in the 2ª Etapa Cooperativa Huancayo in el Agustino, it was very painful for me to see how the youngsters involved in gangs were abused by the police and marginalised by the community due to their continuous fights. The neighbours in my community used to up on their roofs to watch the fights while the police came; treating it, instead of with fear, as a show to enjoy.

One day at prayer I asked God to guide me how to reach out to these young people. He answered me in a very special way, I felt the need to share the Word of God with the children, teenagers and young people. Since then I made my free time available to them, in other words from 8 pm onwards. I went to find them in

4 the places where they met, sometimes on the train tracks, other times on a basketball court in Menacholl. I won their friendship and confidence, and they gave me time at their meetings to share with them about life and values; always starting from the Word of God. Later I found it necessary to set up a project to give study grants for the young people of working age in technical careers, and for the youngsters to get them back into school, and also other people as part of this bible study group got involved with the children providing them with breakfast and lunch, and a school library, and since then on Sundays from 10 am to 12 pm bible studies are taught to the children, still today. Because of these acts many of the young people changed their life style and now the fights have decreased massively. My commitment, as an ally of God, has grown.

For me these commitments are meeting places with God. In the face of every deprived person I see God. As such I got more and more involved with Grassroots Social Organisations, in this case, the El Agustine Glass of Milk (El Vaso de Leche de El Agustino), with the aim of getting the society more and more involved in the work rescuing these young people from the situation that they find themselves in. I also managed to create a good relationship with the police so that I could freely accompany these young people when they were arrested.

The community shows a positive evolution in their way of life. An example is that the street fights have dropped by nearly one hundred percent. This shows that God works through the Holy Spirit through people committed to justice, to serve the marginalised and the poor, and so extending the Kingdom of God.

I firmly believe that God is in the marginalised people (gang members, criminals), because with the presence of his Spirit they are helped to change and choose a life of abundance, happiness and enjoyment. As such I can say that Jesus Christ is in the gang members, in the youth who steals because he is hungry and I, an ally of God, am there to be a small part in this process to change their life.

I have also come across difficulties in this journey. First of all with a nun who came to my house with a group of women to prevent me talking to them about the Word of God. According to her I was stealing her parishioners, this only made me more determined to work sharing with others the essential ingredient which is the Word of God. I only tell biblical stories, parts from the gospel. At the beginning the community wanted to get rid of me because the marginalised children went in and out of my house. Now event the Mayor wants me to shut up and says that if I want to evangelise I should go to the prisons which is where the delinquents ought to be. A few days ago I was taking to Father "Chiqui" and I was very happy telling him how the young people and the older people had chosen a different life, and he told me “this is our happiness to see the faces that used to be desperate, hateful, in pain and now to see them smile, hopeful, this is our joy and greatest shelter”. It was the Lord who has helped me when I asked him to help me bare the insults, or unfair slander, and the next day I have risen with encouragement to continue working and defending the people’s dignity.

5 I ask my brethren believers in the living and true Trinity of God to be more compassionate to those who are outside of the church, taking as an example Jesus in the parable of the Good Shepherd, when he says that this humble shepherd, leaving the other sheep went in search of the rebel, disobedient sheep, and when he found it he took it up in his arms with love without criticism or finger pointing, and nor should they be sectarian but rather ally themselves with those with the same faith and commitment.

I would also like to say something very important and which if I do not say would be egoist and small-minded. In June 2003 Yolanda Chicota Vásquez, from the Catholic Church introduced me to Father "Chiqui", because he wanted to meet me as he was doing the same work in favour of marginalised people. This was not luck but rather the Lord who allowed it. At the time I was having extreme financial difficulties, without work due to an unfair situation, and on meeting Chiqui I felt pastorally accompanied which was very important. Since then I feel that the Virgen de Nazaret Parish is my church where I can go and find a new loving and loyal Christian community, because the Lord placed in El Agustino Jesuit missionary priests with a commitment to the El Agustino community, who are worthy of emulation. This is why my painful past is now only a memory because the Lord has compensated me in this way.

I want to ask the society of El Agustino to live its faith in justice and with humility and a simple heart. To the rich countries that they be fairer and more aware in their economic development policies, that they oppress less the poor countries, that they cancel their debts and live the faith that they preach.

Now with liberty and conviction I can say that my horizon is clear, my service to God is to share the Word of God and serve the marginalised and achieve that other people get involved and become committed to this valuable work.

I CAN DO ALL THINGS IN CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME (Philippines 4, 13)

3. Félix Guillén

47 years old. Married to Lupe Ramírez Cáceres. They have three children (Micaela, Daniel y Carlos Arturo). He started university. He works as Human Development Promoter in the El Agustino Educational Services Centre (SEA)

My Christian community is made up of 12 people and one Jesuit priest who accompanies us both personally and as a group. We live in different areas of Metropolitan Lima, but most us are from the districts of El Agustino and Santa Anita. We met and set up a community to share our lives and enrich our faith. A faith that permanently takes us and invites us to feel more strongly our commitment to the project of Jesus, and which demands that we persevere in the promotion of

6 justice wherever we live, of course without losing sight of events on a national and global level.

In my community there is a range of commitment which is closely related to daily life: neighbourhood, parish and professional. We all work in the fight against poverty, violence, corruption and ungovernability, through civil society organisations, the Virgen de Nazaret Parish and the NGO SEA. The last two are the work of the Jesuits. We are found in Neighbours Associations, Communal Banks, political parties, in the Committee for the Fight against family and sexual violence (Mesa de Lucha contra la Violencia familiar y sexual), in the social pastoral of the Virgen de Nazaret Parish, in the teams promoting human development of the NGO SEA.

I personally work in the NGO SEA, specifically in the Local Development Management Team,. My work consists of training, advising the civil society leaders and the local municipal authorities. In this fascinating adventure, at specific times and places, I have often found the face of Christ, the challenges of Jesus and his burning call to build the Kingdom of Love and Fraternity. I have thought about the needs and demands of the poor and simple on feeling excluded from the country’s wealth distribution, even from accessing the benefits of health, education, work and participation in public decision-making. Furthermore, when the population loses hope in the current Peruvian political system which mainly favours the rich and as such love and fraternity lose their meaning amongst them. Maybe for me they are moments and circumstances that touch me deeply and question my faith and personal life, but at the same time they are opportunities for dialogue and discern with God in order to continue following his will.

I have realised that God has deeply touched my life. My human fibre has become more sensitive to anything damaging to human dignity and life. More so when children, young people, women, the sick and the old are spurned, abused, humiliated, killed and whose basic needs are uncared for. But I am extremely happy when together with them we achieve rights and execute development projects, design political strategies, protest in the streets; when we perform citizen vigilance to counteract authoritarianism or decrease corruption by the local or national governmental authorities.

I feel that my life has changed in many ways, I have been enriched by the simple people, the social, religious and political leaders in my area, when hand in hand we achieve our dreams; a dignified place to live, a small piece of the Kingdom of God, a human testimony in response to God’s wishes.

The biggest difficulty that I found on this path has been the selfishness of a group of social leaders, local authorities, company and political sectors, because they are not committed to the process of radical and sustained change that is needed locally and in the country in order to improve social harmony and improve the quality of life of the population and particularly the poor and those in extreme poverty. There may be material and resource limitations but there must never be a

7 lack of dialogue, tolerance, solidarity and social justice between the in order to tackle that which is bad in society and the structure of inequality. However, the collective and organised force of the civil society organisations work tirelessly for common welfare, providing hope and big and small triumphs in every area of human life but there is still a lot to do in order to conquest the bread and all of the spiritual pleasures.

In this way the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church has to be closer and closer to its people, put its Gospel teaching into practice, be coherent with the Second Vatican Council and the encyclicals. Walk together with the poor, the disabled and the excluded in the path of the Kingdom of God. Be up to the challenges set out by social, political, cultural, religious, scientific and technological changes on a local, regional and global level. I think that also what is needed is to break some of the religious paradigms which influence the mentality of the people like the false images of Christ (Punisher, Judge, Police,, etc.), the contempt for politics, the break down of the Christian way of life (Faith vs. Life, and as such faith vs. justice), the conservative concept of the meaning of holiness and sin, amongst other subjects and current attitudes. And lastly a clear, radical and committed message from the Church against the inequality between rich and poor.

The only thing left for me to say is that I still have a lot to do to become more humane, a true Christian, an enthusiast of the life and project of Jesus. However, for years now I feel my heart beat with God, giving me a wife, children, friends, comrades in the fight, a people, a world, a mission, gifts which have undoubtedly come from the grace of God, who has given me a full life.

4. Irene Chamilco Reyes

Single. 31 years old. Member of CVX Núcleo El Agustino. She works in the El Agustino Educational Services NGO (SEA).

What commitment to Justice and the dignified life for all have been acquired as a Christian community, helped by your shared Christian faith?

My commitment to Justice and the dignified life started with my concern and interest in promoting the civic and political participation of the young people. I feel that it is important for the young people to show themselves, not only their opinion but also that they make proposals and put into practice actions in favour of their community, and above all improve themselves as people every day. Where we live it is difficult to think of a specific future. The poverty and marginalisation make the young people, before they try out any opportunities, frustrated faced with such a panorama without possibilities. However it is encouraging that many young people with a massive effort can progress and build a dignified life and even improve the situation of their family. Joining their concern for the welfare of others and working to develop their communities.

8 I think that choosing this vocation has a lot to do with my Christian faith which was reinforced through a reunion with God in youth pastoral training in my Parish. I feel identified with the problems and the scepticism and the lack of faith of the young people, and due to my own experience since I joined this community I feel that I must communicate hope. What I found when stunned by the violence at university, the financial and family problems I searched for explanations, logic and reason in all of it. I came across people who patiently and without pressurising tried to answer my doubts I realised that it was maybe not so much my nonconformity, but what I actually wanted was to be told that things could change and improve.

Are these commitments a meeting point for you with God? How?

Whenever I feel that my work has helped to improve the life of somebody, I feel reconciled with God. For a long time I was bitter because I did not feel his presence like when I was little. The injustice, the chaos and the violence made me say that he did not exist. Talking with the young people, listening to their problems and above all their encouragement and the strength that they have to want to change things is where God is. This is a living, loving God who respects my wishes, for whom I have a purpose, who is only love, closeness and tenderness.

What signs of the Holy Spirit have appeared in this committed life and that you consider to be particularly important?

Having gone through difficult situation and also others full of love has marked some of the important milestones in my life. After difficult situations I have understood better which abilities had to be reinforced in order to be better and to serve better. Sometimes the lessons have been so full on that it has taken me time to recover. The strength of my family and their warmth has been a sign of God for me.

Life attitude and meaning

By recognising a good God, who respects my freedom, I have taken on a commitment to promote understanding between the diversity of thoughts and backgrounds. Particularly in a country marked by the social marginalisation of the poorest and the Andean.

5. Maura Olivara Acero

I will start with my own story:

9 My name is Maura Olivara Acero, I am 56 years old, a merchant born in Ancash in the province of Corongo, I have 6 children, 5 are now adults and one is in secondary school.

I started to participate in the community in 1992 invited by some friends from Nocheto accompanied by Father Vicente Aragón. At the beginning I was not too enthusiastic but after nearly three months a group of us were invited to a course in Christology in the chapel of Ficus de Santa Anita. It was here that I started to understand that God had called me to perform a service. I questioned myself a lot on my return to the community. I started by exploring the Bible. We did not miss anything with Father Vicente.

After two years I remember a day when Father Vicente said to me “now Maura, miracles”. In my ignorance I was afraid. Am I so holy as to perform miracles? After Father Vicente’s trip to Spain Chiqui arrived at my community to celebrate mass for the death of Father Vicente, he invited me to leave Nocheto and go to the chapel of Guadalupe and he asked me to be the coordinator of the ecclesiastical community. I prayed about it for three months. It was not easy to accept because I did not understand what it was. In the end I accepted thanking them for their patience. They send me to Fatima parish in Miraflores and I started to understand my work and my commitment with my community and the other 14 communities throughout Guadalupe, also the community of young people, scouts, catechesis, conformation, marriage. Thanks to the continuous help of Sr Marite and Father Lucho Sauto, I was able to accompany this ecclesiastical community for 4 years. All of this work was done with continual prayer and spiritual exercises once a year because it is not easy for a lay person to perform this work along with the housework and other work. For me it is clear that God was holding my hand.

In the ecclesiastic community we set up ministries with different responsibilities. There I acquired the ministry of the word thus undertaking to accompany those around me in their faith. After 4 years in charge of the ecclesiastical community I left the position and appointed another person in my place.

Once I left this position I decided that I wanted to have a rest and devote myself to my home and my children, but I was unable to do so because I joined the human rights group. I was in this group for 3 years. At the same time I was also catechist for the children.

We also formed a group a group of us who had done a course in the vicariate school for 3 years and we did not want to break up this group. We met once a month to pray and know the life of St Ignatius of Loyola.

Father Vicente and Father Lucho had talked to us of the St Ignatius but it seemed dark and I was not enthusiastic but in the group that we set up I got a clearer picture and I fell in love with the spirituality of Ignatius where Father Taiti accompanied us and proposed that we set up the community of Christian life

10 (CVX). This is where I got my strongest commitment and I always like to pray with the passage from St Paul where it says “it is not me who lives, it is Christ who lives in me”. Every day when I wake up I say it to our Lord and I place myself in his hands, but sometime he takes it very seriously and uses me which I find hard but I always thank him for preserving my life.

Now my commitment is not to Human Rights or other groups, but with the Communal Banks and Santa Anita, where we have nearly 2 thousand women and I am the Chair of the entire organisation. I know that the work is quite hard and committed but thanks to my prayers, retreats, courses I can continue going forward working with people from every religion trying to understand each other and promoting solidarity, honour and coherence.

I hope that these comments help in some way:

ALL: The commitments are for me a meeting point with God even being at the table with my children. When I listen to them I say “How great you are God for the gift that you have given me, because everyone can say what they think. Even my husband who was not such a believer goes to mass every Sunday, even the chauvinist has changed, for all of which I give thanks to God.

MY FAITH: Is very clear and visible in my commitment with the CVX and I will continue until I pass away and I will always be committed to those who need me, also accompanying adults and young people on their retreats.

I KNOW THAT NOTHING is easy in life, during all of this time participating in the different areas I have had many problems both at home with children when I joined the community but I had to be patient and talk to each of them and they began to understand me because they started to participate in some groups. In the communities there was a lot of jealousy because they saw me going places and they criticised me. They think that being in a community is to be in church praying. They did not understand that the commitment is not inside but rather outside. But I leave it all in God’s hands. I do not go to their level. I try to share my difficulties with my spiritual companion where I obtain guidelines and move forward.

TO THE CHURCH: Today I would ask for the renewal of communities because they seem in every aspect very deteriorated. People are Hungry for God but there needs to be more commitment to make them aware of the work of God, we need more people to be committed, whether lay people or from religious orders, because we are not dealing with the current needs of the children and young people due to the same change that is occurring on the world level.

11 TO SOCIETY: That they get to know God and they allow him to love them, that it is beautiful to follow him and that there is no other.

But also to the rich countries in the world: that they share with those in need, because there are many people dying of hunger. To live decorously one only needs honour. That they do not harden their hearts, that they learn to be happy sharing, giving up what they have. I think that this is the main point: GIVE FOOD TO THE HUNGRY.

6. Isabel Rivera Gonzáles

My name is lsabel Rivera Gonzáles: I’m a layperson, a teacher and a mother. I live in El Agustino and I belong to the CVX "Servidoras de Cristo", and form part of the Human Rights Committee of the La Virgen de Nazaret Parish and currently work in the Women Promotion Centre of the district.

As a teenager I started my participation in the parish as a First Communion Catechist, in this process of growing faith I complemented my commitment with university studies.

I worked in various schools in very poor areas of Lima and in the provinces where I was able to share the very different reality with the people and see their needs for attention, love, education, freedom and happiness. Motivated by this experience I resumed my participation in the parish after twelve years and I have a daughter.

During this period my husband suffered unfair accusation at work which took him away from us, after nearly 4 years he returned home but our family relations had changed and he decided to leave us, a decision that we shared, but which does not break the bond between father and daughter.

At the same time I was leader of the teachers union. I underwent a period of repression and social injustice by the governments which worsened the living conditions, doing much harm to the country’s education and particularly to the children and young people.

Sharing in my community strengthened my faith and commitment, focusing myself on the Jesus of the Eucharist. By doing Spiritual Exercises I learnt to always look for the will of the Father; and making my acts a prayer and action of grace has helped me to overcome critical situations in the life.

A little while ago I had a very difficult health problem, when everyone thought that the efforts were calmed by the illness, I could clearly feel how the Lord put people in my path: the doctor, the priest, event the most simple women from the community, God’s women, who despite their limitation did not hesitate in helping, praying and accompanying.

12 I can now say that life is like the Gospel where Jesus is omnipresent in everyone, in every action, word, detail for which I give thanks.

What commitment to Justice and the dignified life for all have been acquired as a Christian community, helped by your shared Christian faith?

My community helped to mature my faith, because I can relate it to my choosing the poor. This training from courses, seminars, retreats and meetings gave me a greater commitment in the work for justice through actively participating in the Human Rights Committee and accepting responsibilities in the teachers’ union.

Our country and our people mainly live in poverty and unfortunately some of them in extreme poverty. The joint mission of my CVX is to fight on behalf of the poor; and I personally believe that in this path the role of the teacher must urgently be reappraised to promote education and defend the rights of people so that they can grow as citiziens.

The current conditions demand us to be significantly inspiring witnesses like Jesus was.

Are these commitments a meeting point for you with God? How?

Yes, because by choosing the poor I see Jesus in them, mainly in the children at the schools, in the teachers and in the people in my neighbourhood.

I am involved in the reality of my country in order to look for spiritual growth and awareness of everyone; and so that our message brings happiness and hope which leads to love, because love is God and he does not only free but rather inspires justice.

What signs of the Holy Spirit have appeared in this committed life and that you consider to be particularly important?

The attitudes of the people who help me believe more in this Good Father, people who despite their shortages do not hesitate in giving to others, they take difficult paths to form communities, committed teachers who provide good teaching, ladies who bring communion to the sick, people who fight to demand employment rights.

What aspects of your faith have become clearer, emphasised, strengthened?

The growth in my faith has changed my life style: I share more with my family, my community, I have the patience to know how to listen, a lot of encouragement despite the difficulties, a desire to work and make my work underpin a society where the dignity of everyone is acknowledged, be aware and sensitive with others

13 in order to predict and produce the changes that are so necessary and that they demand.

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