Some realities, people, events, places… In this case, certainly AFRICA.
There are many concerns today on this continent… “In Africa it has become normal to live in slums. It’s a trend that we live and that is difficult to combat because of several factors, ranging from political corruption to economic inequalities arising from the growing gap between the rich and the poor,” Zimbabwean Gilbert Nyaningwe, an independent expert on development issues, said to IPS. Among the total population, estimated at 1,100 million people, Africa has more than 570 million people living in slums, according to UN Habitat, and 61.7 percent of the urban population live in them.
Leaders of African civil society blame the multiplication of slums to the growing unemployment in the continent. Worldwide, that agency of the United Nations Organization (UN) hold that there are 863 million people who live in these slums, and it is expected that by 2020 the figure will reach 889 million.
Development agencies in Africa warn that slums are a growing trend in the continent, although on the average their countries did manage to reduce extreme poverty by half, compared to Millennium Development Goals, but much remains to be done. It is a problem with many causes.
We remember in a special way with our prayer and affection the Sisters of the Community of Daughters of Jesus present in Mozambique. We know so little about them directly! We are certain that they are living a beautiful mission in a harsh reality, as a tiny grain of sand in the middle of a great vastness and with the style of Candida Maria de Jesus.
May the seed sown in Mozambican soil, through our sister Miriam Pires da Fonseca in the 28 years she lived among us — as they say in her obituary — and characterized by her great love for Jesus, her vocation as an educator, her big heart, her kindness, her joy, her welcoming attitude, her sensitivity to the neediest and in manifesting the face of God Father-Mother, be strength for each and every one. Thank you Sisters!
Teresa Ramírez FI
