Esmeralda Caudel, from Mexico, joins the Lavalla200> community in Moinesti
The LaValla200> community in Moinesti, Romania, has been enriched by a new presence: Esmeralda Caudel, a volunteer from Mexico, specifically from Guadalajara. She joins the brothers Mario Meuti and Fabian Rubio Navarro (Mediterranea) to form the community. Esmeralda had been waiting for almost a year, after completing the preparation program for the LaValla200> Project in 2020 and receiving her appointment to Moinesti. The pandemic had delayed and disrupted many projects but not her desire to join the community.
In Moinesti, it is not only the community that has grown. Our Day Care Centre now has 14 children and others on the waiting list. The available space and anti-Covid measures do not allow further admissions at the moment, but even more than these factors, we have to be cautious in terms of numbers because of the workload involved in externally-supervised educational pathways tailored to the personal needs of each of the children.
The children come to the Centre directly from school, are given a hot meal and then helped with their homework. Then there are other educational activities to develop various basic skills and time for organised games and open play.
Next, the testimony of Esmeralda
When I heard about the Marist voluntary service, I felt a very strong desire to respond. My first voluntary service in 2019 was a call for me to change direction, to reconsider the meaning of life, and to rethink what I had been planning in life. I needed to find a way back to the Father’s house, like the prodigal son.
So, our good Father-Mother and the Comforting Spirit have used me and my story to take me beyond the small and comfortable bounds of my life to go out to meet other brothers and sisters, who speak another language and who live very differently to me, culturally speaking. At the same time, we are all alike when it comes to talking about the battles fought and wounds received in our passage through this world.
The particular situation of the children in Moineşti strongly caught my attention since a number of them are being raised by their grandmothers. Their parents have been forced to migrate to other countries for financial reasons and a number have been absent for several years. Other children have not even met their biological parents.
Finally, as my brothers say, the language of love turns out to be universal. Maybe at this moment I still cannot fully communicate with the children at the Day Centre or with the people around me, but I realise that the simple fact of being there for them and helping them in any way I can, gives me back a sense of being my true self and having a purpose. I have always understood that working as a volunteer creates a two-way healing situation. If I am willing to do a service, no matter how insignificant it may seem, God, our Good Father-Mother and the creative Spirit take care of healing hearts, restoring the purity and dignity of being children of God (the call of our first vocation) and therefore inspiring us to be brothers and sisters to everyone wherever we are in the world, always trying do good and intent on reflecting God’s love to each one of them.