Since 2014, the Network-of-Light of Guarujá, a coastal city of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, affiliated to the Fraternidade – International Humanitarian Federation, performs a work of distribution of food to a poor community in the city. About one hundred people are assisted weekly.
The work currently takes place on Wednesdays, when the volunteers collect the food (greenery, fruits and vegetables), donated by a greengrocer of the region and then distribute in the poor community called Morrinhos Quatro.
Wanderley and Rosineide Freitas already performed some assisting activities in the region even before the work was integrated to the Network-of-Light in 2014. Today, the group is composed of 15 volunteers, of which four members are more directly linked to this task. In each distribution, 20 families of low wages in the community are assisted. ‘We stand on a circle, then we pray and start the distribution. Each family brings a bag and we put the food that is possible’, says Rosineide.
In the community elderly people, adults and children are assisted. Rosineide explains that, in order to interact and estimulate the mental abilities of the children during the delivery of the little bag, the volunteers ask questions of the multiplication table and little counts, ‘with this small stimulus, we perceive that they get excited and even demand our questions when we forget to ask about the multiplication table’.
The amount of food varies according to the donation. The average is 15 boxes, which means about half a ton of food distributed weekly.
Joanice lives in Morrinho Quatro, and talks about the importance of the activity of the group in the community, ‘I thank God, because sometimes we have nothing, not even a greenery, or a fruit. It is very good to have you helping us. I hope you continue to do this work that is very important for the people from here, and may God bless you’.
To Rosineide, the work of the group is similar to a bridge, that enables to link the donations to the brothers and sisters who need them. ‘I feel a deep joy with this work and at the same time a great sensation of being worked in certain aspects of my Being. As we try to do some task meeting the other’s need in an impersonal manner, without expectations, we feel a great change in our consciousness’.
