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Misson Statement (even though Al passed on)
I, Alphonse M. Gerwing, do liaison work for Canadian based
NGO's (Non-Government Organizations) with their partners
in the State of Alagoas, in Brazil's Northeast.
The Northeast of Brazil is a vast area of "miseria"
where the great majority (a mix of black, American native, and
white people) are landless and, when forced off the land because
an owner mechanized or turned from sugar cane to raising cattle
- are homeless. They are in the main, illiterate and are
excluded from the political, social and economic life of the numerically
small middle class elite.
The NGO's on whose behalf I work are:
-
Rainbow of Hope for Children
And
-
Peace & Development
-
In
Alagoas, I receive the request of the three “movimentos”
with which I work, asses them, and pass them on to the NGO.
If the NGO accepts them as a viable it develops them into
a proposal to present to C.I.D.A. -
Canadian International Development Agency.
Periodically, I visit the projects in Brazil to monitor progress
and receive projects progress reports for the NGO and C.I.D.A.
-
In Canada, (Western Canada) and in Germany (Rhineland –
Westphalia), I do fund-raising for the projects and general
social justice education. I also arrange visits from our
project partners to Canada and take Canadeaus to Alagoas
as means of expressing solidarity and forging close bonds
of friendship and collaboration.
The three movimentos
which I work in Alagoas are:
- CEAPA:
This is the States’ principal land reform organization.
It currently has nearly 200 affected communities; some of
them well along on the road to development (literacy, infrastructure,
programs for women, re-forestation, water procurement and
storage, health clinics, and one two room schools, etc.).
Most however, are still totally bereft and need our support
for some time to come.
For CEAPA we have funded many projects:
Truck, jeep, a headquarters in the Capital, Maceio; wells,
desalinization, etc.
Ricardo Acuns, ex Director of Change for children will visit
CEAPA, and all out Alagoas movimentos and their projects in
June, 2000.
David Oke of CIDA’s small projects branch visited the
projects with me in February of 1999 and was greatly Impressed.
In 1997 we had them president of CEAPA Genivaldo Viers Da
Silva, come to Western Canada on speaking tour: Winnipeg,
Saskatoon, Rosthern, Edmonton, Calgary, Pincher Creek, Humboldt
discussing issues in Alagoas and hearing rural people from
the Prairies analyzing their own situations.
- The Urban Homeless
Movimento, formerly known as Sem Tito (the homeless) it, too
now has a new name: The Struggle for Dwelling (site and material)
of Alagoas.
We have done many projects for them too, over the past eleven
years: a headquarters (currently being enlarged to give them
space for training courses and for micro-industry); the acquisition
of sites and building material for five communities in the
Capital and one in Colonia Leopoldina.
- Movimentos Meninos
las da Rua – Mov. Of Boys & girls of the street.
- Here, too, we
have done many projects. Some directly for the Alogan branch
of this national movimento and others for individuals or
small groups that tackle a local problem.
- Headquarters
for Projeto Alternativo ( alternative that is, to the
government’s way of incarceration; or society’s
way, via the police, of eliminating them); street education
projects, cultural and recreational projects; protection
from police, etc.
- A school
– home – workshops for boys at Fundanaor in
Palmeria dos Indios.
In 20 years of retirement from teaching, Lourdes monteiro
has built Fundanor into a blooming institution.
She is currently, with our help, setting up a Girls’
Town in her City to compliment this Boys’ Town.
In 20 years of retirement she has raised 2000 of Brazil’s
citizens.
See Below
- Project Thallitha
– a consortium of small group sisterhood in Maceio,
the Capital, is doing this work as rescue/rehab for girls
in prostitution in the Capital.
- The Horta
– (The Garden) a home/school on St. Rita’s
Island for street kids who want to leave off vagabonding
(it’s near the capital).
Though #3 and #2 take much of our time and resources, #1 is the
most urgent area of our attention and help, because the failure
to enact land reform is the principal cause of our Urban Slums
and children abandoned to the streets.
N.B. We brought Lourdes Monteiro to Saskatchewan
for the premiere of the play The Angel of Alagoas, based on her
life and her work with street children.
Alphonse Gerwing
We are guilty of many errors and many faults,
But our worst crime is abandoning the children,
Neglecting the fountain of life.
Many things we need can wait.
The child cannot.
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