{"id":328438,"date":"2016-07-22T04:00:33","date_gmt":"2016-07-22T02:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/the-amazon-a-perfect-stranger\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:04:41","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:04:41","slug":"the-amazon-a-perfect-stranger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/the-amazon-a-perfect-stranger\/","title":{"rendered":"The Amazon, a perfect stranger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PA-Obidos2016The Amazon is a frequent topic of discussion today because everyone is worried about the deforestation and exploitation of its immense resources<\/strong> by unscrupulous politicians and economists. But very few are aware of the problems of the communities living on the banks of its immense river with the same name, so precious for our sick planet. There are great difficulties in accessing any type of healthcare. For example, in \u00d3bidos (almost 50,000 inhabitants), the only hospital is that run by the Franciscan Third Order, which has only one doctor to tend to the most urgent cases, while for specialized cases the sick have to go to Santar\u00e9m, a distant six-hour travel by boat. Anxious about the scarce spiritual assistance given to the deeply religious population, the Brasilian Bishops\u2019 Conference (CNBB) called<\/strong> for a concrete response to this issue. This appeal stirred up the interest of hundreds of Focolare members (youths and adults from all over the country and also worldwide) who created the \u201cAmazon Project\u201d in 2005. Each year, during their holidays they set out on a journey to visit the region\u2019s various riverbank communities. Made up of healthcare clinicians, but also of common individuals, they go to lend an ear to the problems of the people, treat the sick, and play with the children in a silent but explicit testimonial of the Gospel in action. In this month of July, there is an ongoing mission of this type in three different districts: \u00d3bidos (Par\u00e1), Magnificat (Maranh\u00e3o) and Barreirinha (Amazonas). \"PA-Obidos2016Twenty-two volunteers went to \u00d3bidos, among whom were four doctors, a dentist, a physiotherapist and a medical student.<\/strong> With the logistics support of the inhabitants during their untiring seven-day stay in those places, they were able to visit seven communities and treat a total of over a thousand people. They went from house to house, and were put up for the night by the generosity of the people who did not hesitate to stand by the volunteers and give a helping hand, thus creating a warm atmosphere of brotherhood amongst all. When the time came to depart, the scene was always the same: nobody wanted to believe that the \u201cmissionaries\u201d would be leaving the next day for another community, and no one could say who experienced more joy in that intense day passed together. If there is truth in the saying, \u201cthere is more joy in giving than in receiving,\u201d it is also true that \u2013 as the volunteers said \u2013 they felt it was they who received more, in the close encounter with such a genuine population, so rich in values, courage, and authentic faith. Every departure was sealed by the promise to return the next year, accompanied by new friends influenced by their enthusiasm. A young volunteer of Benevides gave a touching testimonial<\/strong>, saying that he was grateful he had \u201cgrown spiritually and as a person.\u201d A girl from Bel\u00e9m, struck by \u201cthese extraordinary people she had met,\u201d declared that once she returned home she would \u201crecommend to all to undertake a similar experience.\u201d Another young man from Bel\u00e9m remarked: \u201cI live in a society that takes interest only in the latest Smartphone model, whereas over here, I saw children who were happy to receive just a simple pencil. I saw people line up, without managing to be visited by the doctors, while over here, people start complaining when they have to wait a bit. And yet, though they are in a disadvantaged situation, these people are always joyful. Upon listening to their stories, I was convinced that some of them would really deserve an honorary degree.\u201d See also:<\/strong> http:\/\/projetoamazonia2016.blogspot.com.br\/<\/a> Tweet: Doctors, nurses and Focolare members have launched the Amazon Project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doctors, nurses and members of the Focolare spent their holidays in three districts of the Amazon region (\u00d3bidos, Par\u00e1 \u2013 Magnificat, Maranh\u00e3o \u2013 Barreirinha, Amazonas) to launch also this year, the Amazon Project.<\/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-328438","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\/328438","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=328438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}