Spring for life
“Twenty years of Spring for life
We know this year isn’t the same
Very different and far away
But still, we spring
Even in a virtual circle
So much history, so many years
So much struggle and reflection
A reading of life
There are no beans this year
But there’s surely sharing,
So much hunger
Growing every day”
This poem was written by Joice Santana (Caritas Brazil Northeast Regional 3) and recited during the live streaming event held on Wednesday 30 September, sweetly but critically weaving together the richness and shared knowledge at the launch of the 20th Spring for Life Campaign. The beginning of the new season was crowned with a virtual round table dialogue on the theme “The people’s hunger and God’s kingdom of sharing in times of pandemic, ‘Because I was hungry and you gave me something to eat’ (Matthew 25:35a)”. The event was part of the series “Ecumenical and Inter-religious Dialogues” produced by the Ecumenical Coordination of Service (Coordenadoria Ecumênica de Serviço: CESE) .
“Just as seeds sprout this spring
Love also grows
Hope
Stubbornness
Prophecy
Spring for life
A spring of lively people, who do not tire
Who disagree, who converse
Reflecting on Anderson Augusto’s great work
Which echoes through life
And is not suffocated by death
It’s the right gesture
Lit up by the verses of the late Don Pedro Casaldáliga
Spring this year is a time of yearning”
“And how many are hungry?
In a female circle of strong women
Strong women,
Who help life to spring
Who are indignant
Who mobilize
And work where challenge grows
It’s the fight for land, it’s the fight for life
Resistance, justice
It’s the struggle for social equity
For all of life, for everyone, all those who work in the fields
For the recognition of territories”
Notable invitees to the round table dialogue included Mother Nilce of Iansã – Iyá Egbé from Ilê Omolù and Oxum (Coordinator of the National Networks of Afro-Brazilian Religions and Health and – Rede Nacional de Religiões Afro Brasileiras e Saúde – member of the State Council for Women’s Rights – Conselho Estadual dos Direitos da Mulher – Rio de Janeiro); Juliana Santos (Popular Educator and Activist from the Homeless Movement of Bahia – Movimento Sem Teto da Bahia); Gilvânia Ferreira da Silva (Teacher, Popular Educator and Activist from the Maranhão Landless Rural Workers’ Movement – Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra: MST); and Nancy Cardoso (Methodist Pastor, Feminist Theologian, Philosopher and Training Advisor at the Pastoral Land Commission – Comissão Pastoral da Terra: CPT).
The round table dialogue was mediated by Sônia Mota, CESE’s Executive Director, and started with a greeting from Father Marcus Barbosa, CESE’s President, which reflected: “we are living in the time of creation, creation with its phases, its clamour. Life is stronger than death, we have already cried a lot, many have lost their way”. Barbosa brought calm and strength to the audience’s hearts by remembering the Beto Guedes song, “The Sun of Spring”. “We will remember hope, which springs from faith. Active hope, not only in prayer, but in the concrete gesture of love and for the defence of rights”.
“Spring for life
Donations, coffee mornings, sharing
For all who are vulnerable
In times of evictions, when there is a structure for deforesting
Agroecology is the lighthouse for a new way of life
In the power of women in the fields and on city peripheries
100 million trees are being planted
Native seeds are shared
Dignified life in the country and city
With education and life in abundance for all
Shared by the kingdom of love and solidarity”
Representing the Maranhão MST, popular educator Gilvânia Ferreira da Silva reported a series of violations, noting that rural workers are surprised by these on a daily basis and this is exacerbated by the pandemic: evictions; threats and the deaths of leaders; rural workers having problems accessing credit; and children in the encampments struggling to access the internet.
Nevertheless, she believes in a future of good living, based on MST practices aimed at food security and sovereignty in the countryside and the city, with the distribution of native seeds and coffee mornings to fundraise for street populations during the pandemic.
“Spring for life
Food sovereignty and lives threatened
In traditional communities
The destruction of fishing and mangrove communities
The people want to live
They want good living
It is hunger that cries out
Hunger for justice, territory, good living
Hunger for justice
For freedom
A constant and historic struggle
Spring for life
Calls on us to unite our cries”
(Marizélia Lopes, from the Movement of Artisanal Fishermen and Women in a statement recorded for the live streaming)
“Our hunger is for respect for ancestry”
“Spring for life
Sisterhood, respect for life
Struggle for life
For dignified life
Spring for life
Indigenous people have suffered violations through time
And these have accumulated
Indigenous people in the ICU
Yes in the ICU
Vulnerable and at greater risk of dying
It is hunger for life, for territory
Demarcation now!
And we are all invited
To join this struggle
This struggle needs to reverberate in Brazil and in the world.”
(Samara Pataxó, lawyer and legal advisor to the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil – Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil: APIB)
“Spring for life
Training
Education
Transformation
Are the basis for changing society
The right to citizenship
The right to housing
It seems invisible but it isn’t
It’s hunger to live well, for good living
Resistance, confrontation
Dignity
Indignation
Hunger for hope
Fed by holding hands
We need to respond
And not be indifferent
There are campaigns
Water availability
The people of the MSTB come together and are satiated
From washing their hands to food
In partnership
The support comes
And the hunger is sated
And you know that book you read, but haven’t looked at lately?
Pick it up, give it, contribute so this sharing can grow
Feed love
Dreams
In a collective way
Hope and care for these children
Zero evictions!
The #ZeroEvictions Campaign was one of the slogans mentioned in the talk by Juliana Santos from the Homeless Movement of Bahia. This national initiative emerged from mobilizations and joint efforts by residents affected and threatened by evictions, by social movements, organizations, collectives and research laboratories around the country. The initiative came about in reaction to the removals and evictions promoted by governments and private owners (both companies and individuals) that have taken place in both the countryside and the city, from the north to the south of Brazil during the pandemic – precisely when staying at home is considered one of the most secure and efficient ways to protect against and prevent infection. The aim of the campaign is to halt individual and collective evictions during the pandemic.
“We are this resistance, in the fight for housing. This right is vital for human beings and permeates all living spaces. Our hunger is for justice, hunger for a roof”, Juliana emphasized.
In her reflections, the popular educator from the MSTB explained how “God’s kingdom of sharing” is expressed by the movement: from the current book campaign to encourage education for children, young people and adults, to an inspiring number – zero COVID-19 contaminations in the squatter settlements as a result of a consistent and ongoing campaign.
“The pandemic has come and bound together all the existing crises. It’s all new, but it’s all the same,” said feminist theologian Nancy Cardoso at the beginning of her talk, summarizing in these two phrases the deepening social and economic disparities in Brazil.
Referring to the situation in religion, Nancy condemned the position that God is placed in nowadays: in mining, in agribusiness, in the food industry. “We must criticize: reposition the churches from the grassroots, from the left, reclaim the Christianity of the poor, come together at the table of equality. Construct our networks, the people’s web.”
She challenged people of faith “to remove parasites who intervene or to construct new spaces,” indicating pathways to satisfy contemporary “hungers”.
“Spring for life
The hope of women who go out to fight and don’t give up
The pastoral practice of the people
Sacred, communion, agroecology
Voices of prophecy
That echo around the communities
The crises that existed
Spring for life
Join forces
To satisfy hunger
And join hands
To hold the meeting at the table of equality
And once again put there
The source and principle of life
The source that is truly life!” (Joice Santana)
THE COMPLETE LIVE STREAMING EVENT IS AVAILABLE HERE (in Portuguese):