Mission House - Maringá Brazil
The last two or three years we have been working in Maringá with communities of LGBT people and also those living with HIV and AIDS and those overcoming drug addiction. An ally of The Institute, Reverend Celio has started a Community House that we have funded.
The Community House is a group living situation. It is a house where people live and we have recently equipped it with a kitchen and moved in beds, we have a long-term lease on it and they do a lot of food programming, so we sponsor both kitchen and Pantry program out of that space which kind of works as the center of the programming.
The Archdiocese of the Catholic Churchthat oversees Maringá also funds the food programming. Most of the people that live in there are already HIV affected HIV positive and currently we are working with the government in Brazil to expand the funding. The government in Brazil does found some HIV programming. It's a house, it's a community living situation, a kind of mid term to help people get back on their feet and help with job opportunities etc.
Reverend Pat often compares it to Sylvia's Place here in New York, it's more transitional, but very community-based. So we now have the lease, all of the permits are legit, all of the construction has been approved, everything is on the up-and-up. We now have a Mission House in Brazil, |
