The newly created Vicariate of Puerto Leguizamo is densely green and picturesque. But the idyllic tropical rainforest setting is not a palliative against the dreadful conditions in which many people live. In the last few decades the area has seen an influx of “outsiders,” who have disrupted the way of life of the local populations, in many cases creating friction. The environment has been degraded by unscrupulous mining companies, drug traffickers have crept in, and a nation-wide armed insurgency has not left the region unscathed.
The volatile political, social and economic situation has led to the displacement of many people, most often women and children. Many women – some quite young – have been widowed, their husbands murdered at the hands of armed groups. Other women have been abandoned by their husbands who, ostensibly, have gone off to look for opportunities elsewhere, leaving the women to raise the children alone. With little or no hope of finding gainful employment, and thus denied access to adequate food and shelter, many of these women and their children find themselves in a dire situation.
Sister Maria Bertha Hernandez, a Consolata missionary, has been working in Puerto Leguízamo for many years, and she knows how desperate the situation has become. She would like to initiate a program to help the women in the region feed themselves and their children. Her program calls for setting up workshops for groups of four or five women from each of the five parishes in the vicariate.
In the workshops women would be taught to prepare multi-mezcla flour and other inexpensive and highly nutritious foods. Multi-mezcla is made from various products found in the region such as plantain, cassava, corn, and fish. The newly trained groups of women would then go out and, in turn, teach more women in their respective parishes to prepare, cook and preserve the multi-mezcla – thus allowing increasing numbers of women to adequately feed and support one another and their young children.
Sister Bertha has found a space ready to be converted into a kitchen and cooking classroom. She also needs to purchase a gas stove, as well as cooking implements, dishes, spoons, and a mill for grinding corn and other cereals. Containers are needed for preserving the processed foods. Just as importantly, Sister Bertha needs teaching supplies to conduct the training sessions: a black board, markers, notebooks, pencils, and pens. No doubt, Sister Bertha’s plan is very ambitious, but it is well worth it, for it will for ever alter the lives of hundreds of women and children and give them new skills and renewed hope in the future.
The total cost of sustaining this program for the women and children of Puerto Leguízamo for one year is a mere $27,700. The local community has already committed itself financially by raising $5000. Can you help make up the difference? Sister Bertha, and the mothers and children of Puerto Leguízamo would be so grateful.
Fr. Paolo Fedrigoni, Consolata Missionary, and Domenic Cusmano
Coordinators of Projects and Campaigns