San Paolo (Brazil). On 15 March 2021, Sr. Metka Kastelic, FMA, and two lay persons of the Leadership of the Social Works of Brazil carried out the technical-pastoral visit to the Oscar Romero Community Center in Guacuri, on the periphery of the southern area of San Paolo (Brazil) – Province of Our Lady Aparecida (BAP).
The goal of the visit was to listen to the team of educators of the Oscar Romero Community Center who serve in the two units of Creche Pingo de Gente and Santa Lucia, to learn about the work done in this time of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Listening to the personnel made it possible to touch first-hand the wounds and frailties caused by the pandemic and the need to support those at the forefront of assisting families at risk and subject to social vulnerability. The listening ended with a prayerful reflection on the faith and hope cultivated by Mother Mazzarello.
The day continued with a visit to the places where the families assisted live, to learn about the consequences of social inequality, and also those caused by the pandemic.
Promoting the life and rights of children, adolescents, and young people, contributing to the construction of a more humane, just, and supportive society is the educational purpose of the Social Works.
Oscar Romero Community Center – Santa Lúcia was born in 1985 and serves about 200 children and adolescents, aged 6 to 14, offering socio-educational activities aimed at developing their awareness of citizenship, education to protagonism and autonomy of pupils, in order to overcome the condition of vulnerability to which they are subject and to give them new life opportunities.
The Oscar Romero Center – Creche Pingo de Gente is a nursery school whose main objective is to guarantee children from 0 to 3 years of age the indispensable conditions to ensure their right to life, health, sports, freedom, family and community coexistence, without forms of discrimination, exploitation or violence.
Don Bosco’s Preventive System is adopted as a methodology and spirituality, for the integral education of children and young people, giving priority to the consolidation of family and community bonds.
