Brescia (Italy). On 19 October 2024, at the Auditorium Centro Congressi Capretti in Brescia, Lombardy, the Association Carlo Marchini Onlus, dedicated to supporting children in Brazil, will award the Carlo Marchini Prize, established in 2019 for Brazilian missionaries close to the Salesian Family, “in recognition of their commitment to disadvantaged children living in the poorest areas of the Country.”
The Prize will be awarded to Sister Maria Helena de Resende, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians of the Brazilian Province Mother Mazzarello (BMM) who, “after many years of experience as teacher and coordinator of Salesian schools in different cities, since 1995 she has been working with our Association to help the most disadvantaged children present in the Mary Immaculate Institute in Barbacena and Nossa Senhora Auxiliadora in Cachoeira do Campo”.
Sister Maria Helena de Resende was born on 5 October 1938 in Resende Costa, a city in the interior of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. As she recounts herself, at the age of 15, she moved to São João Del Rei, where she started working in a textile factory to help her family, because her father was very ill and could not work. “It was a good experience, because working for 20 years with the Social Works, I now realize the difficulties faced by parents who have to leave their children in these institutions.”
After studying literature at the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of São João Del Rei, she began teaching Portuguese and English in schools in Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Joao del Rei, Anapolis, and Brasilia.
“One day I received an invitation from a Sister who invited me to work with her in a social care center. I accepted the invitation and, with the Provincial’s approval, I started working in Barbacena. I stayed there for eight years and then I was assigned to the Chiara Palazzoli Social Work in Contagem (Belo Horizonte), where I stayed only for a year. Later, the Provincial needed a Sister as Director of the Social Work of Cachoeira do Campo, and here I am.”
Currently, she is the Director of the Social Work Our Lady Help of Christians (INSA) in Cachoeira do Campo, Minas Gerais, where she continues to dedicate herself tirelessly and with passion to the care and promotion of children and adolescents, with a positive impact on their families and the territory.
“What I do here enthuses me, because I work with 120 children and adolescents, assisted by ten educators who carry out their mission with great love and dedication. We have several workshops for students, such as: pedagogical support, computer science, crafts, life project, sports, music, theater, dance, etc.”.
As Director, Sister Maria Helena welcomes students, provides assistance in the courtyard, holds meetings for parents and educators, offers individual accompaniment to parents and students. “I’m like a duckling in the pond, doing what it always wanted to do,” she says.
The Institute of Our Lady Help of Christians (INSA) is a non-profit civil organization of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians located in Cachoeira do Campo, a neighborhood of Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. Its objectives are the promotion of childhood and adolescents, the consolidation of family and community ties, the prevention of risk situations, developing the potential of children and adolescents, so that they may become autonomous, protagonists and citizens capable of contributing to the transformation of society.
It is aimed at the population living in a situation of social vulnerability resulting from poverty and hardship due, among others things, to lack of income, precarious or no access to public services and/ or emotional fragility.
It deals with children/adolescents aged between 6 and 14 years, offering them from Monday to Friday lunch, snacks, and different workshops through which they work on topics such as citizenship, the environment, values, life project, music, Family, democracy, and cooperation through sports, art, and cultural activities.
The methodology is based on the Preventive System of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello and is based on the Salesian trinomial Reason, Religion, and Loving-Kindness.
At the award ceremony on 19 October, present will be Sister Maria Ausilia De Siena, General Councilor for Communication of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
On the same day, three more missionaries will receive the “Friendly Heart” Prize, awarded annually by the Association Cuore Amico Fraternity to honor the missionary world: Sister Elvira Tutolo (Sisters of Charity of S. A. Thouret), since 2001 in the Central African Republic; Father Giovanni Gentilin (Canossian), since 1983 in the Philippines; Marilena Valvano, lay woman, since 1993 in Venezuela
Parabéns queridas Irmãs de Cachoeira do Campo!!!! Este é um reconhecimento justo a quem doa toda sua vida em beneficio dos últimos!!! Nossa Senhora continue abençoando sua missão!