Sendas ODV ©
C.F.: 97943350153
RUNTS n.: 108962
RURAL MISSIONS
The ‘veredas’ are villages in the Antioquia region of Colombia, whose capital is Medellín. These villages can only be reached after several hours of walking or off-road driving.
Many of the people who live in these villages have been victims of killings and violence in Colombia's recent history with the narcos. The people who live there are trying to rebuild their lives and are almost entirely devoted to agriculture.
We go to volunteer in these villages with young people, bringing them food, medicine and basic necessities, as well, as organising summer camps for the children of the village and cultural events for young people and adults.
WHERE ARE WE AT
During our experiential trip to Colombia in July 2023, where we took nine young people from Milan to experience Colombia and do volunteer work in the new oratories around Medellin (see the dedicated section), we had the opportunity to set off with the older leaders of the Coredi Marinilla oratory for five days of missions in the town of Santa Ana Granada and the surrounding veredas. We left on Sunday 30 July and were given a very warm welcome by children and adults who waited for us at the entrance to the village together with the town band and accompanied us in procession to the parish church of Santa Ana, where we were introduced and celebrated the opening Mass of the mission with the whole community.
Santa Ana is a small village in the corregimiento of Granada in the Antioquia region, about an hour and a half from the nearest urban centre, which today, including the surrounding villages, has about 500 inhabitants. In the 1980s, with the arrival of the guerrillas, many people were killed or expelled from the village, with the population of the corregimiento falling from 3,000 to 320. Only four people remained in Santa Ana, including the parish priest. With the end of the war between the drug traffickers and the Colombian government, people have gradually returned to live in their village of origin.
Today, the village is alive: there are families, young people, elderly people and many children, but it remains a very shaken village, which is still recovering and has many poor people who cannot access their pensions because the nearest bank is too far away to reach on foot. The sick are visited at home when the doctor is available, and children receive education from the local school, but some veredas are so far away that some children give up their studies to go to work with their parents at the age of 8 or 10 to help their families survive.
Every day we visited villages near and far, bringing games and recreational activities, without forgetting Holy Mass (a priest always came with us). In some villages, the priest can only visit once a month. We brought food parcels to the poor and sick in the town and villages, visited them, washed clothes by hand and cleaned the house of an elderly couple with a disabled daughter who are no longer able to do household chores. We held a day of oratory at the school with the children of the village. Every evening, recreational or prayer activities were organised with the whole community. On the last day, after delivering the last food parcels and visiting the families in the village, the bishop, Monsignor Fidel, insisted on celebrating Holy Mass to mark the end of the mission and meeting us for dinner one last time before we left.
Many things have been done, but what has remained most is the imprint of the heart, in both directions; anyone can do things, but the big difference is that Sendas becomes attached and puts his heart into everything he does, letting himself be swept up by the enthusiasm of the children who, despite everything, smile at you and cry when you leave, and letting himself be embraced by that woman who is sick and cannot be cured, and despite the linguistic and cultural distance, confiding in you and letting you comfort her. The difference lies in this: letting yourself be affected and continuing to be there even though your heart is broken, doing all this with your heart.
Sendas ODV ©
C.F.: 97943350153
RUNTS n.: 108962