I realized that their father was deceiving me
and I told him: “If you leave me, I’ll kill myself.”
I got on the bicycle
and went and jumped off a bridge.
I saw an opportunity to continue living,
to continue struggling,
and that I had three treasures.
I found this land,
which was a big rubbish dump,
and I went with some friends to see the owner.
He is Jewish, while I’m Catholic.
And he told me: “Look, if you’re going to help the children from that neighborhood,
then it’s fine with me; go ahead.”
He started coming here and
we had peace of mind knowing that
he wasn’t out on the street, with bad companions.
They play sports,
and do their homework,
and they’re helped to mature as persons.
The hope of a better future
requires offering real opportunities,
creating jobs, especially for young people.
Without solidarity this is impossible.
I come here with the hope of improving my skills
since a job is hard to find now.
ELFAN began as an association of volunteers
and later became a cooperative
that offers courses in sewing and ceramics,
especially for women.
In ELFAN we began
to help the girls after the classes
because we want them to understand
what working as a team means.
I’ve learned that teaching
means drawing the best out of each person.
A very important aspect of work
is learning how to help one another.
By working you learn how to work, but you also get to know yourself better.
There’s a strong family atmosphere.
My children were 11
when they began coming here.
It was a great support.
And we saw that the key was
having a job assured on finishing the course.
I’m the first one in my family
who has studied at the university,
and this makes me proud.
I came here and was taught how to work,
because if I hadn’t come, I wouldn’t have any idea what to do.
The Mount Carmel school changed me in many ways.
It provides us with skills, but also
gives us values and spiritual formation.
We offer a combination
of theory, usually called classes,
and then the other part is
training in a work setting.
After graduating, the students have a job.
Many companies now
come here to look for employees.
Mount Carmel school is a great help
for people who don’t have access to a university education.
Everything I have in life
is thanks to the help of other people.
Now I am returning this favor by helping others.
I have a family,
a good job.
I’m very happy to have all this.
It seems a dream to me, seeing all their effort
to help improve my children’s lives.
You see them helping you, when they have no need to help you:
they come, they call you, they’re concerned when you’re absent.
They’ve given us hope,
showing us that despite our situation,
there are still people with a heart who help others.
The Holy Father knows that you can’t be truly happy
if you aren’t compassionate.
The important thing is to reach the hearts of the young people.
I hope that in the future things will improve, at least as far as employment is concerned,
which is the first priority.
Seeing someone about whom
people might have said: “He’s not going to succeed”
and you helped him to have a different outcome in life.
We have to work with eagerness,
putting our heart into our work.
You can also do so because of the money you earn
to better your family’s situation.
But also to please God.
Also because work is a prayer.
Also because work ennobles you,
and makes you someone of value,
that is, it makes you a Christian who is each day more perfect, holy.
Pass on this experience that one can go forward,
that, although you lose everything, if you still have life, you have a future.