How exciting to see them come and make a difference in these children's lives!
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Project Smile
Firm Promise Baptist church has been calling together some dentists and other groups to come together and provide the community that used to live at the Trash Dump with toothbrushes and toothpaste. They called it Project Smile.
Children's Day Trash Dump
They are not still located at the trash dump (except for 14 individuals who are waiting on homes to be built), but are now located on the westside of Carpina (Pop. 100,000). It is quite a transition for them, but they were ready to celebrate. They are located at the old town cow butchery, which has been shut down for years.
Firm Promise Baptist church did an amazing job of having games, food, trampolines, jump rope, and a ball pit. The kids (over 100) were busy running from one station to the next, having loads of fun. We are so excited to see this church step up and make a difference in their community!
Update and Prayer Partnership
The Federal law in Brazil states that at the end of 2014, all open (current) trash dumps must be closed, and the people working there relocated and trained to work at a sanitary landfill. Over 40 families have lived their whole lives a couple miles out of town, sorting through trash to pull out whatever is recyclable to barely make a living.
This year the government built housing for the community on the other side of town, but didn’t visit or help anyone relocate. The government then started giving the new homes to other people! The trash dump community worked together to move and inhabit the homes, even though they were not completed, and they did not have permission yet. Fourteen people still live at the dump (there were not houses enough for them), and the adults in the community still walk 5 or 6 miles a day to get to the dump, that will be closed at the end of the year. They have no other job skills, and have not been trained, as the law states, to work at the new landfill.
A local Baptist church (Igreja Baptista Firme Promessa) has taken over this ministry, reaching out to the children every weekend, and providing soup to the community. Overall, the community is happy and so excited to have their own (first) homes—most of them lived in trash lean-tos at the dump. But many of the houses are incomplete, there are still 14 without a home, and the future is uncertain. Also, they have been outsiders all of their lives, and that doesn’t go away overnight.
This year the government built housing for the community on the other side of town, but didn’t visit or help anyone relocate. The government then started giving the new homes to other people! The trash dump community worked together to move and inhabit the homes, even though they were not completed, and they did not have permission yet. Fourteen people still live at the dump (there were not houses enough for them), and the adults in the community still walk 5 or 6 miles a day to get to the dump, that will be closed at the end of the year. They have no other job skills, and have not been trained, as the law states, to work at the new landfill.
A local Baptist church (Igreja Baptista Firme Promessa) has taken over this ministry, reaching out to the children every weekend, and providing soup to the community. Overall, the community is happy and so excited to have their own (first) homes—most of them lived in trash lean-tos at the dump. But many of the houses are incomplete, there are still 14 without a home, and the future is uncertain. Also, they have been outsiders all of their lives, and that doesn’t go away overnight.
It is with great joy that we let you know that a group of young people have taken the calling of serving this community, and it is no longer a Living Stones program. They have asked us to join them in a prayer partnership, and so we will continue to report on what God is doing, and hope you will continue to lift these families up in prayer.
Raissa (front middle) and her amazing team.
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