Help for Rui Barbosa: “We’ll never be finished”

It has been more than 30 years since the Welser Verein “Water for Rui Barbosa” has begun to provide development assistance in the Brazilian diocese. Michael Linsmaier, son of the now deceased club founder Johann Linsmaier, and his wife Gaby traveled to the region this year to get a personal impression of the various projects. “It’s incredible what has happened since our last visit in 1999″says Linsmaier.

As its first project, the association financed 600 cisterns for small farming families so that they can cultivate their fields. “The problem is that many people there have no economic prospects and are moving to cities. But the situation there is also very bad”says Gaby Linsmaier. The project was intended to give people the opportunity to secure their own existence and stay in their homeland.

It was so successful that the Brazilian government took up the concept and built around a million cisterns in the northeast of the country – around 17,000 of them in Rui Barbosa. “At the beginning I thought that we would build the cisterns and that would be it. I now know: we will never be finished, there are always new requirements”says Michael Linsmaier.

After the public sector began building the cisterns, the association focused on giving children and young people a perspective. So opened “Water for Rui Barbosa” for example, in 2005 a children’s home in Itaberaba, the largest city in the diocese.

Sustainable projects

In a youth center that the association finances, children who would otherwise be out on the streets are looked after every afternoon. “During our visit there we met a young man who had just started studying. He came there specifically on his lunch break. He told us that without the youth center he would probably never have studied”says Linsmaier. With a karate school, the club helps to socialize children through sport and give them goals.

Also supported “Water for Rui Barbosa” an agricultural school for young people who learn the right methods for cultivating the barren soil. “There used to be a lot of overexploitation there – the original bushes were cleared and then cultivation was not sustainable there. After a few years the soils are dead”explains Michael Linsmaier.

The association has recently also been supporting students in their final year of agricultural school in implementing internship projects with loans of between 600 and 700 euros. “We visited a student who bought beehives and is now making honey and propolis products. She has already bought new sticks and paid off part of the loan”says Linsmaier. A program to revitalize dead soil is currently underway.

For all projects the association works with the diocese of Rui Barbosa and its bishop Estevam dos Santos Silva Filho: “We use their infrastructure, so there are no personnel costs with us or in Brazil. All resources flow into aid projects.”

The trip was very impressive, says the Welser, who is involved in the club with his siblings, children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren: “It was very nice to see that our projects work sustainably and have a positive influence on the lives of so many people.”

Lecture on January 12th in Wels

If you would like further details on the association’s extensive development aid “Water for Rui Barbosa” If you want to find out, you have an opportunity to do so on January 12th at 7 p.m.: Gaby and Michael Linsmaier will report on their journey in the Herz-Jesu parish hall. They talk about visits to the projects and conversations with the young people who have benefited from the helpfulness of numerous people from Wels and the surrounding area. Registration requested: 0699/11337374.

Thanks to donations, the association can continue its development aid. Donation account: Water for Rui Barbosa, IBAN: AT35 1513 0002 7101 0720.

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