wfn.org | Brazil: "These Are the True Heroes"

["Frank Imhoff" <Frank.Imhoff@elca.org>]

Brazil: "These Are the True Heroes"
Lutheran Foundation Offers Hope to Marginalized Communities

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil/GENEVA, 16 February 2005 (LWI) - Representatives of
ecumenical organizations who attended the World Social Forum (WSF) this
year had the opportunity to visit projects of the Lutheran Diakonia
Foundation (FLD) * an organization of the Evangelical Church of the
Lutheran Confession in Brazil.

"Through the exposure visits, many issues debated at the WSF could be seen
in practice," said FLD executive secretary, Rev. Silvio Schneider. The
foundation's involvement includes work with recyclable material collectors; a small-scale farmers' support center; co-operatives; a quilombo (slave
descendants' community); income and employment-generating projects; and,
HIV/AIDS and human rights projects in urban centers.

"Seeing the association of waste collectors at work was a unique experience for me," said Yacubu Muhammed Bingle from Ghana, who came to Porto Alegre
through sponsorship of the German Protestant aid agency, Bread for the
World. "Back at home, this type of work has no dignity. Here I see
unemployed garbage collectors who have resisted the temptation to become
criminals. They have overcome their pride and are turning this task into a
profession. These are the true heroes and I'll go back to my country and
talk about this experience!"

Vincent Nanga from Cameroon, supported by Germany's Church Development
Service (EED), a body of Protestant aid agencies, commented on the visit
to the quilombo. "We've read about them, we've heard about them in Africa,
but to see how people here live is another experience in itself. Although
far away from them, physically, there is a spiritual union between us."
Nanga was particularly shocked by their appalling living conditions. "What
can we do to see them integrated in the world?" he asked. At the same
time, he was encouraged by their struggle to stand on their own. He
commended the FLD and farmers' support center for their remarkable work
with the community.

"If we are discussing the possibility of 'another possible world' at the
World Social Forum, it is important that people from other countries, who
come to Brazil for the first time, make visits like these and get to know
the several dimensions of what is being done," commented EED's Luciano
Wolff.

Rev. Enos Moyo, representative of the Lutheran World Federation Department
for World Service in Zambia and director of the Zambia Christian Refugee
Service, was equally impressed by the quilombo project. "The message that
we are carrying home to Africa is to pray for you. We have seen real
challenges here: the need for sanitation, water, education, land itself
and now the drought t you are facing. These are enormous challenges and we
will pray and have hope for you." (445 words)

(Adapted from the original Portuguese article written for LWI by Porto
Alegre-based journalist Susanne Buchweitz.)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 138
member churches in 77 countries all over the world, with a membership of
nearly 66 million Christians. The LWF acts on behalf of its member
churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith
relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication,
and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat
is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless
specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or
opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an
article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced
with acknowledgment.]

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