Daniel Comboni
Comboni Missionaries
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“Despertar” a project of the Comboni family
Rome, Wednesday, February 20, 2013
On January 14, Comboni Missionaries, Comboni Sisters and Lay Missionaries began the activities of the project “Despertar” (Awaken), an initiative of social promotion by the Comboni family in the parish of São Tiago de Camarate, in the outskirts of Lisbon, Portugal. The objective is to accompany children and adolescents in their integral maturation and to help them grow in a spirit of active citizenship.
The project “Despertar”, a joint venture of the Comboni Family – Comboni Missionaries, Comboni Missionary Sisters and Comboni Lay Missionaries – is inserted in the parish the Comboni Missionaries run in Camarate, with about 20 thousand people, near the International Airport of Lisbon.
Starting in the 80s, in the area there arrived a very large number of immigrants, especially people from the old Portuguese colonies of Africa, but also from other nationalities and ethnic groups, mostly Asians, Brazilians and Gypsies. A data which confirms this diversity in the population of Camarate is the fact that in the secondary school, 32% of the students are not Portuguese.
This local reality, made worse by the current economic crisis of Portugal, was the reason for creating the project “Despertar” which aims at working with the children and the adolescents in an attempt to fill in the educational gaps in the age group between 6 and 16. The principal mission of the project is to be with the children and the adolescents during their free time to cooperate and contribute to their integral growth, in school, in the family, in their interpersonal relationships and at play.
Currently, about 20 youngsters take part in this project, followed by volunteers coordinated by the team of the Comboni family.
“This project was thoughts of from the very beginning as being from the Comboni family, because we believe that the future of mission, wherever we are, consists in working, thinking and being present together,” said Sr. Ida Colombo, provincial superior of the Comboni Missionary Sisters in Europe.
On that occasion and to underline the importance of giving common witness, Sr. Ida mentioned the phrase of the well known Brazilian educator and writer Rubem Alves: “The dream which is only dreamed is only a dreamed dream, but a dream dreamed together becomes reality.”
Currently, about 20 youngsters take part in this project, followed by volunteers
coordinated by the team of the Comboni family.
Lay Missionaries and Comboni Sister Maria Carmen (on the right).