The project of the Augustinian Recollects that welcomes girls and adolescents who have suffered abuse, exploitation, abandonment or deschooling in their environments of origin has taken its beneficiaries to the beautiful rural world of the interior mountains of Ceará.
In Baturité (Ceará, Brazil) there is a Jesuit monastery surrounded by mountains, leafy valleys and incredible views over the immense plain of the Brazilian semi-arid region, as well as much more moderate temperatures due to the altitude.
The beneficiaries of Saint Monica Home, the socio-educational project of the Augustinian Recollect Family in Fortaleza (Ceará, Brazil) that welcomes girls and adolescents that the competent authorities have decided to remove from environments of origin that are harmful to them, do not usually take into account your mind the idea of a vacation that includes tourism and trips to discover new realities or natural spaces.
So taking advantage of a few days of school vacation, the project managers decided to get out of the daily routine of the project facilities, where these little girls live and receive all the necessary resources to meet their needs, and take them to places unknown to them.
These trips have a series of indisputable advantages for those who live outside their families in a host institution: the fact of getting to know different places and maintaining contact with Nature eliminates daily stress, provides convivial environments in which to discover other facets of people, opens the mentality to new worlds and promotes emotional and relational balance.
In addition to the beautiful Jesuit monastery, they also traveled to Redenção, 55 kilometers from the state capital, the first municipality in Brazil that freed its slaves on January 1, 1883 and became a promoter capital of abolitionism. The sugar mill is still preserved and can be visited, which keeps memories of the time of slavery as a testimony of a historical fact that should never be repeated.
The beneficiaries enjoyed a moment of joy and games at the Paracupeba Waterfall, a reference tourist space in the entire state of Ceará and one of the most picturesque landscapes in the rainy season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUoq6uR4028
On October 12th, which is Children’s Day in Brazil, the Uirapurú Spiritual Condominium, where the Saint Monica Home is located, organized a children’s event for the institutions that work with children and adolescents in this space of the Ceará Catholic Church intended for social projects. There was also a special meal for all of them.
The beneficiaries of Saint Monica Home thus have access to celebrations, spaces and experiences that they had never previously had the opportunity to experience. This increases their capacity for learning, wonder, curiosity and their awareness of loving the Common Home and taking care of it as much as possible to preserve its beauty.
