A group from Milwaukee visits the CSP projects in Cochabamba, Bolivia
From May 22 to May 30, a group of people from various parishes in Milwaukee visited the projects that the Community of Saint Paul carries out in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The Director of the Missions Office in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Mrs. Antoinette Mensah, and Fr. Juan Manuel Camacho, of the CSP, coordinated the event.
The visitors were able to learn about the reality of the street children of Cochabamba and to listen to the stories of the children themselves. The program that the CSP has in Cochabamba (as it has been mentioned often in this blog) wants to prevent that children who live in the street may end up using drugs and being caught in the networks of drug distribution. From “Casa San José” (a shelter center for children) we seek to reunite children and adolescents with their families, carrying out a process of rapprochement and knowledge of each particular situation.
The group from the USA also could get a sense of how harsh and difficult it is the life of the peasants in the Andes, in the rural area of Cochabamba, located at 4,000 meters above sea level: these peasants face the rigors of nature by producing llamas, sheep, potatoes and beans, as well as pine trees to reforest their mountains. Outside the city of Cochabamba the CSP works for the integral human development of the indigenous communities of the municipality of Vacas and Independencia.
The purpose of the trip was to help its participants (mostly young people) to reflect on the missionary reality of the Church and on the different expressions of faith lived by the peoples among whom the Community of Saint Paul works. The aim was to deepen the connection of the local Church of Milwaukee with the universal reality of the Church. It was, without a doubt, a very fruitful trip.
