Worldwide Activity Report -- March 1997
FAR037 - GP

Copyright 1997 by The Family

Organizing Slum Dwellers in an Innovative Aid Project!
By John, Ester and Catherine; Sao Paulo, Brazil

         Sao Paulo, our home for the past five years, is a city of 18 million inhabitants. As in other large cities in the developing world, literally millions of people live in dire poverty on the doorsteps of the rich. You might look out of a window of the fanciest hotel and see the largest and poorest slum -- or favela, as they are called here -- right nearby. As Jesus said, "The poor you have always with you" (John 12:8).
         Paulo, a close friend and supporter of our volunteer work, wanted to do something to help relieve the plight of the poor whom he passed by every day on his way home from work. For a while he assisted a Catholic group that was helping the children in a favela about 5 km from his house, but that work came to an end. Paulo continued to be concerned for the area and wanted to help sponsor a new relief project there, but nothing seemed to materialize. Then one day it dawned on him that all he had to do was go there and do something himself, however small.
         Paulo asked us to go with him on his first visit to the nearby favela. On the way we stopped at a supermarket and bought $150 worth of cestas basicas -- boxes containing an assortment of basic food items that are usually purchased by companies for their employees, or used for charity and relief projects.

Overwhelming surprise at our visit and gifts

         As we drove to the slum, we prayed that the Lord would lead us to one of the residents who could orient us and give us some ideas as to who was neediest and most worthy of our limited help. The sights along the dirt road that led into the slum were heart wrenching. Along one side ran an open sewage canal. Garbage was strewn everywhere. Tears welled up in our eyes at the sight of dirty, naked children in the midst of it all. Would they ever know anything else?
         "Let's stop here," we all said in unison as we saw a young woman nursing a baby in front of her little shack. As we all piled out, one of her neighbors came out and we began talking with him, then his wife, Suely, and then, one by one, all seven of their children. Suely has since proven to be a key person in the neighborhood. She and her husband were actually the first family to move to this squatter area 20 years before, so they knew all 60 families presently living in this small but very poor slum.
         We explained our mission, asked Suely for the names of some people we could donate our cestas basicas to, and proceeded to give them out. It was very touching; the people were overwhelmed with surprise, and we were overwhelmed by how much it meant to them!
         Paulo was so excited by that first visit that he decided to pledge $500 per month to the project. He also offered to personally support two members of our Family community financially, freeing them from fundraising efforts so they could devote themselves nearly full-time to this new ministry. Catherine and 20-year-old Moises took up the challenge.

Appalling conditions

         The next week we returned to the favela with seven more cestas basicas and seven bags of used clothes to give to seven families. When we arrived, mayhem nearly broke out. Those who had seen us there before recognized our van, and word quickly spread to others who had heard about our first visit. A crowd soon gathered. We didn't have enough food and clothes to go around, and some people complained when they saw they wouldn't be given anything. We went ahead and distributed the goods, but realized at that point that this wasn't the best way to go about it.
         We got a bitter taste of inner-slum conditions when we personally delivered the donations to people's houses. Most were makeshift shacks along muddy, trash-filled paths. One woman lived in a small, miserable shack with ten children and no husband.
         We were invited into another home which we could hardly get into because of the laundry hanging everywhere. Conditions outside made that no place to hang clean laundry. Inside this home it was very dark. In one corner was a bed, and in another a baby bed for this woman's four-year-old, who was about the size of a normal two-year-old. Along one wall was grubby sofa, crawling with vermin. Hardly anyone in the favela has teeth, and everyone is sick in some way. Their plight made us all the more determined to help.
         As we have gotten to know the people better, we see that some of them could take better care of themselves and their families, but just don't try or are so dependent on drugs or alcohol that what little money they have gets eaten up before they manage to buy food for their children.

An inclusive approach

         Taking aid directly into a slum is quite different from assisting another organization that has an established project. We soon saw the need to get the local leaders involved, to get them more interested in helping their own people, and to teach them how to do so. We decided to organize a committee of local residents, and let them help decide which families need and deserve our help the most.
         This is the same tack The Family takes in many of our other aid projects: Find potential leaders among those being helped, listen to their ideas (they know the situation best because they're in it), and then help them carry out their plan. Teaching them to find solutions to their own problems and then sharing the responsibility of carrying them out gives them pride of purpose and us additional manpower. It also nearly always brings the desired long-term results. "Give a man a fish," the adage goes, "and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish, and you feed him for life!"
         Suely gave us a list of people she felt could be a part of this committee, and we subsequently interviewed each of them. In our first interviews, Christina and Paulo checked that the candidates could read, that they didn't have drug- or alcohol-related problems, and that they had lived in the area for a reasonable amount of time. We chose five potential candidates, and John and Paulo visited them all again and decided on three families to start with. (We chose families rather than individuals because in slums families stick together. We knew that sooner or later cousins, uncles and other relatives would all get involved.) At our first committee meeting with the "organizers" who we had selected, we drew up a list of 25 families that we would help first, and discussed the committee members' ideas for distribution.

Support pours in!

         Word of this project spread to our other Family communities in the city, and soon we had a vanload of used clothing to distribute. A friend who owns a bakery offered weekly donations of bread. Other friends at a produce market gave fruit and vegetables. A large supermarket promised rice, beans and noodles on a regular basis. Paulo's company pledged $1,000 per month. Two other friends promised monthly cash gifts.
         From whatever cash comes in each month for this project, we allocate $50 per family per month. We use $20 for a cesta basicas package containing oil, sugar, rice and beans; $25 is used for powdered milk and other items which we buy in bulk, as well as medicine or whatever else the committee and we consider a priority; and $5 -- or 10% -- is set aside for gasoline and other operating expenses. Any excess funds get plowed back into the project. Two of us manage the finances and prepare a monthly finance report for our donors.
         By this time we had begun having weekly Bible studies at Suely's, to which all the adults and teenagers in the favela are invited. At Suely's sister's house across the road, we hold simultaneous activities for the children. The first month about 35 adults and 25 children participated each week. Only about one-fourth of the adults who attend can read, so we have to read to them and explain, explain, explain.
         We suspected that some people were attending just to ensure that they got the free food, but while we were getting better organized we didn't give anything out for a couple of weeks, and people kept coming to the studies anyway. They were thankful for our friendship and the chance to hear God's Word, even without the "loaves and fishes."
         Back at home, we set up a prayer request chart to keep all members of our Family community informed of the overall and individual needs of the favela. On it we record the day we pray for each need, and the day the Lord supplies. All members of our community also meet each week to pray for the families and their problems, and for the project in general.
         One of our mid-range goals is to help all 60 families in the favela, so we keep a file on each family with basic information about them and their photo. Some sponsors prefer to "adopt" one of the families by designating a $50 monthly pledge to cover that family's cesta basicas and other needs. In such cases, we have a picture of the family to show or give the sponsor.

Progress!

         We meet with the committee once a week. They help us distribute some items that need to be used quickly, like market produce and bread, and they have proven to be genuinely concerned for and very generous with everyone. They even try to help those not on the list for regular help, so no one feels left out.
         Now that the people's basic needs are being met, we are able to spend more time visiting individual families, offering them counsel and helping them sort out their personal problems. After each weekly Bible study, the committee gathers to discuss new ideas and to study a little more from the Bible so they can learn to also help their neighbors find God's solutions to their problems.
         No one can deny that our project is already having an impact on this small favela, but some folks may still ask, "What is that in the face of Brazil's many millions who live in abject poverty?" Well, it's a start! By relieving some of the immediate suffering in this favela, and by teaching its residents to take more responsibility for themselves and their neighbors, the whole neighborhood is being changed. In the words of The Family's founder, David Brandt Berg, "If you have changed even one life, you have changed a part of the world and you have proven that there is hope that it can all be changed!"
         Please pray for us, and support this and similar Family projects when you can. Together we can change the world -- one neighborhood at a time!

         The Family is a non-profit, volunteer organization. The activity you have just read about and hundreds of others around the world are all made possible through donations from businesses, associations and concerned individuals. If you would like more information about The Family, or if you would like to help sponsor Family volunteers or projects, please contact us at one of the addresses below:

Web: http://www.thefamily.org/family
E-mail: family@thefamily.org



Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family