The Augustinian Recollect missionary José Luis Garayoa Alonso (1952), is determined to fight poverty in a country that ranks 180th out of 187 in the Human Development Index. The mission is in the Biriwa chiefdom, Bombali, the poorest province in the north. “There are 4 out of 10 children who die,” Garayoa confirms. “Many malnourished children continuously come to the mission,” he explains in a report published in the Diario de Navarra.
An unstoppable “Grandpa”
Neither an abduction nor malaria (which he had for 17 times already) knocks him down. They call him “Grandpa” over there. Since his return in 2005 – after his short stint in 1998 when he was abducted and finally released, he did not stop endeavoring to acquire milk and baby food, which come in solidary containers from Spain, to build schools (at present the mission has 34 schools with 5,000 students and 115 teachers), to promote greenhouse, to raise goats and chickens or to install 40 water wells in the villages. “It is a great joy to see children pumping water and carrying buckets on their heads, which would mean fewer worms in their stomachs,” he says. And they have carpentry shops, needlework. . .
Yet the needs remain immense. And he enumerates: “High maternal and child mortality, high incidence of diseases, lack of nourishment and the capacity of producing them, chronic malnourishment, illiteracy, ignorance of the fundamental rights, defenselessness against social injustice, discrimination against women . . . “also the struggle against ablation.” In the community, he is together with Manuel and Russell (Filipino religious),Juan Jesús from Mexico, and also a native staff and an occasional volunteer. In the area, there is only one paved road and there is no electricity, except in the mission owing it to the solar panels. It is necessary to pay to be attended to in a public hospital and for the medicines. For this reason, he wants to build a small medical center someday.
Meanwhile, he moves to feed the children well. The idea of building a cattle farm emerged talking with the NGO La Esperanza, which usually collaborates with the Augustinian Recollects, and which has 18 years of existence,” highlighted by its president ,Corpus Campo, who will travel to Kamabai on 28th of November.
Ways of Collaboration
Some places are being designated to gather used cell phones and, after selling them to authorized firms, to raise funds to buy cows. The drive is already online through Facebook and some places have been indicated in Madrid and in other regions of Spain.
In the whole province of Navarra, in different towns and in Pamplona, the capital, flea markets and all sorts of campaigns are being organized. Donations from all over the world are accepted for this purpose through the bank account of the NGO La Esperanza (Caja Navarra, no. 2054 001167914463246-5 item: vacas)