{"id":306334,"date":"2018-07-19T23:10:19","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T21:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/welcoming-is-the-first-step\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:37:40","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:37:40","slug":"welcoming-is-the-first-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/welcoming-is-the-first-step\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcoming is the first step"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In the foothills of two small mountains in the heart of Argentina, La Falda is a small provincial town near Cordoba<\/strong>, located on a gentle slope that is part of a well-known tourist circuit in the Punilla Valley<\/strong>. Up until four years ago, this is where the Bongiovanni family – Esteban, Victoria and their two sons<\/strong> – used to live. Then unexpectedly things changed, and they moved to San Marcos Sierras, just to the north. It was their generous way to respond to a request to live at Sierra Dorada Home<\/a>, a refuge for minors who already carry too many serious problems on their young backs. Many of them have stories of being mistreated, violence, being abandoned or malnourishment. At the moment the refuge hosts 28 children. \u201cBefore we arrived, we feared the worst about children\u2019s homes. Like the ones you see in the movies, where the kids and infants are beaten or mistreated. Instead, we found it quite different, more like a large family. We make an effort to improve their situations and remove all the violence they have inside and the conditions they\u2019ve lived through, so that they understand that the normal thing at their age is to live in peace, play and study.\u201d Founded close to 20 years ago by Julio and Patricia Lanciar, and supported by a nonprofit foundation that operates with a true Christian spirit in the province of Cordoba, the goal of the home is to improve the children\u2019s living conditions and help them to reintegrate into their families or foster care. The Lanciars had nothing when they started, other than the hope to be able to improve many children\u2019s situations. Little by little, thanks to the support of many, things grew. Today the Sierra Dorada Foundation manages four \u201chome labs.\u201d There is San Marcos Sierras (where Victoria and Esteban are), Embalse de R\u00edo Tercero, Rumipal and Salsipuedes, and a number of programs for host families, scholarships for volunteers, etc. \"\"Seated at table in the dining hall, Victoria and Esteban explain that \u201cmany people show great solidarity, especially when they build a rapport with the children. There are young people from overseas who undertake internships in social work, as well as Argentinian university students. \u201cOur work begins when we take people in. From the moment they arrive, we try to include them, to give them love, just as a mother or father would. With the help of a staff of psychologists, we try to give their lives a certain order. Starting with using a toothbrush, to bathing every day, putting on clean clothes and teaching them to take responsibility for their school homework.\u201d Smiling, Victoria chooses one of the dozens of stories she could tell. \u201cA few weeks ago, we all went to a hotel where we had been invited for the weekend. I hadn\u2019t made my bed, thinking that we were in a hotel. But then I realized that the children had left their rooms completely in order, and even the bathrooms were impeccable. So I ran back to my room to make my bed, because I realized that I was the only one who hadn\u2019t. \u201cWe try to live well our calling to serve<\/strong>. Yet it is certainly not always necessary for everyone to leave everything, their city, their home and go and live in a children\u2019s refuge. Anyone can do this anywhere with whoever you find next to you. It can begin with the smallest things, such as giving an elderly person your seat on a bus, or driving without road rage. It\u2019s the small things that start and spread good deeds.<\/strong>\u201d Esteban adds: \u201cWe understood that God would never abandon us if we do things well, without expecting anything in return, with humility and trust. \u201cAnd the truth is that by doing so\u2026 it works.\u201d Source: <\/span><\/span><\/strong>United World Project<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The story of Victoria and Esteban from Cordoba, Argentina. For the past four years they\u2019ve been living in San Marcos Sierras, together with their two sons, in a refuge for children and teens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}