Maricela del Carmen Valles and Miguel Hamelynck are members of the Augustinian Recollect Secular Fraternity in the Parish of Our Lady of Buenavista in Getafe (Madrid). For two weeks they have shared life and mission with the Santa Mónica Home.
On the occasion of attendance at the International Meeting of Augustinian Recollects Secular Fraternities- in Rio de Janeiro, Maricela and Miguel wanted to take advantage of their trip to Brazil to visit another of the places that are best known and loved in your parish and in your Augustinian-Recollect community of Getafe (Madrid): the Saint Monica Home of Fortaleza .
This relationship between the Madrid parish and the project is very long and productive. socio-educational center of the Augustinian Recollects that welcomes girls and adolescents in Fortaleza who have suffered violations of their fundamental rights in different ways (harassment, abuse, exploitation, abandonment, unschooling and others).
In Getafe an NGO was even born to assist, accompany, support and raise awareness about this project HelpFortaleza, which is a member of the Augustinian International Solidarity Network Recoleta ARCORES. With offices in Madrid and La Rioja, it continues to carry out every year various activities for the good of the girls and adolescents welcomed in Fortaleza.
For 15 days, Maricela and Miguel have had the opportunity to live with the beneficiaries of the project in the facilities of the Uirapuru Spiritual Condominium where finds, a kind of green island full of spiritual and social projects of the Catholic Church in the capital of Ceara.
Both have participated in all the daily activities, they have accompanied the beneficiaries at different times of the day (study, games and leisure) and have learned first-hand the identity and task of the project workers and volunteers.
The two volunteers from Getafe have spread smiles, generosity and commitment, they have supported each initiative, they have joined the work teams and they have followed the Home’s own schedules and its comprehensive care programming, given that precisely this regulated monitoring of the day (getting up, washing, cleaning, having breakfast, school, lunch, rest, study and school reinforcement, games, dinner, rest) is part of the therapy that brings to the lives of the beneficiaries the tranquility, peace and calm that they have lacked until his admission.
Miguel and Maricela have also collaborated in the maintenance of the facilities and have shared their interesting life experiences with adult members of the educational community of the Saint Monica Home, enriching the coexistence of all.
Finally, it has given them time to learn about the difficult situation of the most excluded neighborhoods in the city of Fortaleza; They have been able to visit some of the families benefiting from the project Saint Augustine Psychosocial Center (CAPSA) and the Jangurussu neighborhood to better understand the origin and causes of the problems that later materialize in many of the sufferings and abuses experienced by the beneficiaries of the Saint Monica Home.
Maricela and Miguel have carried out this attention to the beneficiaries with dedication and passion to the most vulnerable families. In just two weeks they have been a real testimony of the transformer power of volunteering both for each project that receives volunteers and their beneficiaries, as well as for the volunteers themselves, who go out of their world to donate a little of their time and personal abilities and meet those who need it most.
