Episcopal Press and News
Brother Who Suffers in Brazil Gets Help from U.S. Churches
Diocesan Press Service. March 5, 1968 [63-12]
The Rev. Derwent Suthers, former rector of St. Katherine's Church near Williamstown, Michigan.
The Diaconia jeep rattled along a dusty back road 100 miles west of Recife in the state of Pernambuco, northeast Brazil. We were approaching Bonito, population 7,000, typical of many small Brazilian towns where self-help projects receive assistance from the churches.
Diaconia is an interchurch aid committee formed by Brazilian churches "to serve the brother who suffers" and to work for "a happier and more secure tomorrow" for Brazilians in need, without reference to creed.
The need is apparent in Bonito. The town's only industry, a sweets factory, affords employment for 300, who earn $5.50 a week. Others earn far less, working when they are able to find jobs. A greater than 50 per cent illiteracy rate among adults increases their difficulties.
Until recently, it had not occurred to anyone that anything could be done to better the educational or economic level of the community. Then a seminarian in charge of the Presbyterian church, Joao Ribeiro, heard that a colleague in Recife, Jose Lima, had started a varied program of classes in his church, using food from Church World Service as an incentive for participation.
Today, the Presbyterian Institute of Bonito has 600 persons of all faiths from the community enrolled in classes meeting in rented quarters and in homes. There are 17 literacy, seven sewing and six cooking classes, with 18 other classes devoted to subjects such as typing, nursing, tailoring, carpentry and shoe making and repairing.
An often-heard reaction of teachers and learners alike is: "This is something we should have been doing all along. But it took the food to get us started." Our experience is that most of those enrolled will learn to save, improve their economic situation -- some will get jobs or will work at home -- and many more will be teaching others. So "the brother who suffers" may have a "happier tomorrow." This project in Bonito is but one of 1,500 in Brazil reaching more than 120, 000 persons, and located in almost every state.
Episcopalians help such projects through their contributions to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief. Contributions can be sent to the Fund at 815 Second Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10017.
