Solidarity without Borders Brazil and Germany.
Eradicating social inequalities
When I write something about Germany's participation and partnership with Brazil, whether in friendly soccer matches or even at the World Cup, I can't help but think of the German couple and group who have always been helpful, friendly, and partners of the Pequeno Príncipe Nursery and the CEMAR Organization - “Margarida Pereira da Silva” Comprehensive Education Centre When I hear something that portrays the European country, specifically the German country, everything is associated with the beginning of the social work of the Pequeno Príncipe Day Care Center, which began around 1976 when I and so many other children, teenagers and young people and their families were born into a system of hunger, misery and great fragility.
At the time the Pequeno Príncipe Nursery School was set up, Brazil was experiencing great tension in relation to childhood and adolescence, and we were under the regime of a policy that denied and violated all our children's rights. During this period, in 1975, the CPI do Menor was created to investigate the situation of unassisted children in Brazil, contributing to the drafting of a new Minors' Code.
The Minors' Code did nothing to change the paradigm of childhood and adolescence in Brazil; on the contrary, it brought major setbacks in the care and protection of children's rights.
I was born at a time when hunger was latent in our pans, and the lack of public policies was notorious. Do you know what it's like to go to bed with an empty stomach and wake up at dawn with your belly rumbling? It was during this period in which many sertanejo children and families lived in the past that the work of Margarida Pereira da Silva da Creche emerged in the dry sertão of Paraíba, ruined by the domination of the old oligarch. It was then that a group of people arrived in Pombal, PB, concerned and in solidarity with the Third World countries, and came together to help those who cried and clamored for a piece of “bread” that could alleviate hunger, and that's what happened, the destination was our land of Maringá, Pombal, PB.
The work grew and Margarida became a great friend and partner of the group in Germany, in the city of Hochheim am Main.
Hence the emergence of this work, which continues today and has changed the lives and stories of hundreds of children, teenagers, young people, and their families. The Pequeno Príncipe nursery school emerged at one of the worst times in Brazil, but also at the best time when we were suffering from the absence of family, state, and society. In this way, we can already glimpse the promulgation in the 1990s of the ECA - Statute of the Child and Adolescent, Law 8.069 90, which in its article Art. 4 It is the duty of the family, the community, society in general and the public authorities to ensure, with absolute priority, the realization of the rights relating to life, health, food, education, sport, leisure, professionalization, culture, dignity, respect, freedom and family and community coexistence. I would just like to point out that, well before the approval of LOAS, which was created in 1993 by Law No. 8,742, to promote a social assistance policy for Brazilians, allowing a more dignified life for those who are unable to support themselves financially, social assistance was already being carried out in Pombal with the work of the German leaders Heribert, Gerti, Dieter and Ortrud, in memory.
We were looked after with great respect and compassion by Margarida and her team, as well as under the watchful eye of the group in Germany, led by Heribert, Gerti, Dieter, and Ortrud, in memory of our always Margarida Pereira, who left us a great legacy.
I can't stress enough that we were prepared and forged in the context of the social struggle, at the grassroots with the grassroots training nuclei with the National Movement of Street Boys and Girls, proposing articles of the ECA law, participating and mobilizing in the squares and communities to collect signatures for the approval of the Statute of the Child and Adolescent, bases and training of the black pastoral linked to the Catholic Church, meetings and forums in defense of children and the creation of the Sectoral Councils, all the result of the Junção's inspired work and Germany's solidarity in providing the children and adolescents and their families of Pombal with a more dignified and favorable place.
Who doesn't remember the countless children who were well-nourished and cared for in Margarida's nursery?
Who doesn't remember Pombal families without schools or nurseries to care for and protect their children, and Margarida reaching out to welcome them all into the Pequeno Príncipe nursery?
Who doesn't remember that, at the end of the nursery, the child, at the age of 7, didn't even have a social activity? The German group and Margarida created CEMAR to care for children and teenagers aged 7 to 24.
Who doesn't remember so many families carrying bags of food to satisfy their hunger? Margarida and the German group shared with those who needed it most.
Who doesn't remember the many teenagers, young people, and their families who have now made a professional and social impact on the job market?
Who doesn't remember the jobs created in various social areas of Pombal, promoted by Margarida da Creche and the group from Germany?
That said, we are and will always be grateful to Germany for its good partnership with us, especially Heribert and Gert and our eternal Margarida, who left us a great legacy.
José Ribeiro da Silva - Columnist representing the quilombola community in Pombal, Paraíba, Brazil
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