Tapauá is in the midst of nowhere, in the Brazilian Amazon. Towardss the northeast, separated by a distance of 6,083 kilometers, is Kamabai, Northern Province, Sierra Leone. Both share the common traits of poverty, isolation, being in remote rural areas deprived of the mínimum infrastructure. And now, they are united through solidarity.
One can reach Tapaua only either by boat or plane because there is no road available. It is a city of about 10,000 inhabitants, the capital of 90,000 square kilometers (more or less the size of Portugal) and a total of 20,000 inhabitants, half of which are scattered in small settlement pockets inside the forest. It does not have factories. It only has some few provincial and local offices.
In Tapauá there is barely a labor market. Aside from the jobs in the government offices, the only livelihood for its inhabitants is the harvesting of tapioca, gathering of wild fruits, hunting and fishing. Schooling is only up to basic education so that those who are able mígrate to the city of Manaus for further studies or work and end up living there as Tapaua cannot offer any good future for them.
Tapauá receives aids from the outside. There is the local development plan of the Brazilian Federal Government or of the State of the Amazon; rural development projects of the local and foreign non governmental agencies. The Catholic Parish i sable to carry out its evangelization program thanks to such funding agencies as the German Adveniat, and handles aid from Spain for its Centro Esperança dedicated to the semi-professional formation of the youth. The Center was built as one of the projects presented by Haren Alde to agencies as the Autonomous Government of Álava and the parishes and schools of the Agustinos Recollects in Spain.
In short, nobody in Tapauá enjoys excess of money. The salaries are low, the sources of family income are frequently unstable, the price of goods is expensive because everything has to be brought in by boat that takes three to five days to arrive. The transport cost is strongly felt.
The Work of the Augustinian Recollects in Kamabai
Kamabai and Tapaua share many common elements. Kamabai too has few inhabitants in the town center with around 3,500, albeit in the whole chiefdom of Biriwa there can be around 30,000 people. The town has more than 200 small villages. Like Tapaua, Kamabai is characterized too by isolation.
Kamabai may have roads, but its rivers are not navigable. But then during rainy season which lasts for half a year, many of these roads are hardly passable. Some 30 villages can only be reached on foot. Many others, though accesible to off-road vehicles, require a lot of patience and risk-taking.
Possiblity of getting employed in Kamabai either in the industry (there is none), or in the local or national government agencies is null. There is no single office where one can transact business of any kind, except in the parish, no public service, no light, no wáter supply. There is no town hall, since the local leadership in Sierra Leone follows the traditional system of lifetime rule without the mínimum matrix of management and governance.
In Kamabai 90% of the development projects is carried out by the mission of the Augustinian Recollects: scholarships, faculty development, construction of schools, digging of wells for drinking water, health care assistance, vocational training… The remaining 10% of the projects is in the hands of the local politicians and are a source of corruption.
The Catholic community of Tapauá is showing support to the one of Kamabai. Tapauá Sends Help
The Catholic community of Tapauá is showing support to the one of Kamabai . They celebrated last October 23, beng the month of the mission for the Church, the 5th Trade Exhibit during which the people put for sale whatever may have been of value to them and raised the amount of 2,906 Brazilian Reals, equivalent to 1,240 Euros, or 6,000,000 of Leones.
Let us try to check the cost of living in some countries in order to understand better the situation. In Europe, a waged person is one who may receive a modest monthly pay, the so-called "mileurista", referring to those who get a pay of over a thousand or two euros, still within the average class. In a city like Madrid, the monthly cost of food and shelter is at least 800 euros per person. There is still something spared for leisure, culture, rest, trips or savings.
In Brazil, 3,000 reals more or less is equivalent to 6 minimum wages. There are many families who settle with 500 reals every month. Logically, there is nothing that smucks of luxury in their houses. They deprive themselves of any leisure or trips and the food is limited to the simplest one – rice, fish, cassava. In Sierra Leone, six million leones is equivalent to 40 minimum wages. People down there have no light nor running water in the houses. Practically 90% of the errands are done on foot, and generally the people can afford only a meal a day consisting of rice and sauce. A worker earns 150,000 Leones (32 eurso, 75 Brazilian reals) a month, already considered a big privilege. With that amount he feeds his family normally of no less than five people. At times there are more than 15 people in one house and still he feeds them all with that meager earning.
Education: Where the Aids Go
The great gesture of generosity from the part of Tapaua will end up in the area so most in need of help and improvement in that little African town, and that is, in education
In Tapauá there are various schools for primary education and one for secondary. Together with the children in these schools are some youths and even adults. Classes are always full in the three shifts done each day. In some instances they had to squeeze themselves in.
The schools depend totally on the municipality (for the primary level) or on the State (secondary). The professors are today better qualified, after the many training programs enabled them to obtain university degrees. Ten years ago we began the program and now all the teachers have their degree done, compared to 2007 when there were only 5 teachers with the required degrees.
The schools ration food especially to the youngest, where the academic offering is done according to age similar to that in the developed countries. The students are given free uniform and books.
In Tapauá the primary education is obligatory and illiteracy may be gone soon, although in the rural areas it continues to be a problem. Bringing the kids to school is not supposed to be hard for the family nor does it pose an economic burden. Boys and girls enjoy the same access to education and are treated equally.
In Kamabai education is also supposedly obligatory. Nevertheless, around 20% of the small kids never go to school. The illiteracy is very high both among the adults and among children, made worse by a common barrier – language. The official language is English, the higher education uses English as medium, but the people do not have the command of it, not even the professors.
Very few schools belong to the government. And the latter does nothing else than release the negligible salaries for the professors and, occasionally, sends school supplies. But the buildings, their maintenance and much of the operating expenses of the schools, are shouldered by the instutions looking after them, fundamentally the religious missions.
The teachers are not adequately prepared. Of the more than 115 of them teaching in the catholic schools, only 40 may have received the needed formation. Some did not even finish their secondary schooling, many times ending up as community teachers,i.e., those who do not get compensation for the work being done. Around 35 receive their salary from the government. The others hope that one day they would be included in the government budget.
It is indeed a struggle to make the children go to the school. All of them work in the field and do a lot of chores. Going to school entails walking some distances, at times an hour or two just to reach their school.
It is even worse when it comes to the situation of the girls. The many adolescent pregranancies, arranged marriages even for young girls, and lack of means are the reasons why only 2 of the ten girls who go to the primary education are able to finish the secondary.
There are no textbooks, nothing for sale nor given for free. The uniform and the fees are a real problem faced by the families especially in non-catholic schools.
There is neither any feeding program which is very important considering the schedule of the kids – they rise before the five in the morning, they fetch water and gather firewood for the house, they prepare the food, they walkfor an hour and a half to arrive at the school, they enter a class of a few square meters with more than 70 companions. After class they walk back again an hour and a half and go to the field. In the house they have no light nor a simple table or chair where to do their homework.
The lack of adequate preparation of the professors is an added factor in the failure of the children to move on. In Sierra Leone, one has to undergo certain exams in order to get promoted to the next level (NPSE for the grade school to go to the secondary; BECE from junior secondary to senior secondary; WASSE from senior secondary to university). It is the system in place not only in Sierra Leone but also in other countries especially those of Western Africa (Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, among others).
The students in Kamabai are hardly able to pass the exams due to the many factrors that put them much behind compared with those of the other places. The learning materials and opportunies are very scarce, indeed a question of injustice.
Education Program
The Catholic Mission is engaged in an educational program based on scholarship obtained from the abroad, especially from Spain. With this help the students are able to obtain such benefits as free uniform, free tuition fees and added pay for their professors.
Aside from that, the mission also receives projects from some institutions in Spain for the construction of buildings and facilities. During the past 5 years, 11 schools were constructed and inaugurated and at this time there are two schools under construction and a feeding center. Next year, once the projects are approved, two new high school buildings will be constructed.
Another program is in the pipeline which consists of providing adequate formation to the teachers and address too their compensation needs, especially those doing community work, which up to now is voluntary. They need to receive something in order to make them feel the support of the mission and be able too to focus on what they do.
It is foreseen that when the 2011-2012 school year opens, the Catholics Mission will already have the complete cycle of the basic education in Kamabai – kindergarten, elementary and highschool plus a feeding center, all of them in new buildings, some of them already done.
It is the hope of the mission that this educational center will be known for having well-prepared teachers, complete basic education offering, comprehensive English education, lower class density, good buildings, and feeds the children once a day.
The help that Tapaua sends to Kamabai will be injected into these projects. The Brazilian children, aware of the difficulties in their schooling in Tapaua, understand that there are children who are in worse conditions and that they show their oneness with them. This awareness helps them too to take more seriously the education they are receiving as their key to a better future, as a shield to protect their human dignity and rights.
Two distant and different worlds but united in one shared cause. This too is evangelization, mission , solidarity with those who are better off from the ones who have less. And comes an obvious lesson – wherever we are there are always those we can lend our helping hands.