“For I was hungry…”

The following is a letter received from the Superior General of the Brothers of the Christian Schools reminding Lasallians around the world about the International Lasallian Days for Peace and the connection between peace and social justice (the right to food and nutrition).

16 October 2014

For I was hungry and you gave me food.” Mt 25:35

Dear Lasallians,

FB - World Food Day Picture-ENI write to you on the occasion of the World Food Day, 2014.  The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) chose Family Farming: Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth as this year’s focus for the event.  As a Lasallian Family, we also are celebrating the International Lasallian Days for Peace (ILDP), during which we are highlighting five nutrition-centered projects.  On this special day, I would like to bring one of these projects to your attention.

Project C.L.I.M.A. (Centre Lasallien d’Initiation aux Métiers de l’Agriculture) in Bérégadougou, Burkina Faso, is an agricultural training center for young families (www.fec-clima.org). The goal of C.L.I.M.A. is to provide these families with the skills, experiences, and understanding necessary to master their own future through financial self-sufficiency and constant and safe access to food.

The program admits married couples between 22 and 35 years of age who have access to agricultural land and who wish to dedicate two years to agricultural training. During the program, these 24 families are also instructed in carpentry, mechanics, sewing and cooking. Their children attend a well-staffed nursery school located in the same

farm compound.  In addition DSCN9719to these skills, what they appreciate most is the practical experience of solidarity. In fact, when the families arrive, they eat thanks to the harvest produced by the families that have just graduated. Needless to say, by the time of their own graduation, the now skillful farmers are proud of leaving behind a good harvest for the benefit of their successors.

This project is only one of the countless examples of how Lasallian groups and institutions promote human dignity in diverse social contexts. In fact, this agricultural project is modeled on another Lasallian program in northern Togo that has been running for a long time. We are called to adapt and respond to the needs around us, always striving to provide the most vulnerable with the necessary skills to enjoy life at its fullest.

I am confident that our international Lasallian Family recognizes the need to intensify its prayer, study, and action to enhance our role in “feeding the world, and caring for the earth”.

 

Fraternally,

Bother Robert Schieler, FSC
Superior General