The Network-of-Light group of Paraguay carried out the 6th Meeting of the Paraguay Mission “Awakening Seeds”, in union with the Indigenous Consciousness. The activity was conducted on the weekend of the 3rd and the 4th of last March. It had the participation of 17 collaborators from the Network-of-Light of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil.
The volunteers visited two aboriginal communities of the department of Alto Paraná, 320 km east of Assunción, the capital of the country. On the first day, they were in a Mbya-Guarani village located inside the Park Moises Bertoni, in the district of President Franco, and, on the second day, they visited the Mbya-Guarani villabe “Ypu Pora Renda”, a precarious settlement located in Ciudad del Este.
In the Indigenous Community Puerto Bertoni, the visitors interacted with the natives by means of diverse services: a doctor offered health services, an Argentinian volunteer coordinated the veterinarian attendance of dogs and cats, while others offered haircut for men and hair-wash and hairdressing for the women. On Sunday, 4, the volunteers rendered the same service in the Ybu Pora Renda village, in Ciudad del Este.
Donations
In both communities, the group left a donation of food, clothes and medicines. They also gave six big pans and six ladles to proceed with the group preparation of the food. They also collaborated with the donation of zinc plate to cover the Opy (House of Prayer) of one of the communities and gave the amount necessary for the purchase of musical instruments used in the Indigenous ceremonies.
“Each mission gives us the opportunity of really feeling fraternal and of leaving increasingly enriched”, stated Laura Rodrígues, from Eldorado, Argentina. “The sensibility, humility and union among the Indigenous brothers and sisters in Puerto Bertoni is an example to follow”, said Azucena Cardozo, from the Network-of-Light of Paraguay. Leandro, from Posadas, Argentina, manifested similar words: “In this place blessed by nature, we found a very special community, full of virtues, which thanks with so much love the little that we do”.
Indigenous purity
“This experience touched me deeply, for [the opportunity of] feeling the purity that [the indigenous people] preserve to this day, in spite of the conditions in which they live, with so many needs”, expressed Guillermo, from the province of Chaco, Argentina. “I feel that in each mission we compensate in part for all the damage, discrimination and indifference for the Indigenous brothers and sisters”, manifested Adriana Vallet, from Paraguay.
Paraguay Mission is part of the Mission to the Indigenous People, a campaign of the Fraternidade – International Humanitarian Federation. Paraguay Mission began in June 2016, when 20 missionaries of the Fraternidade, and of the Network-of-Light of Paraguay visited, during 14 days, three Indigenous communities of Alto Paraná, bringing medical, dental, emotional and material support.
