One benefactor dedicated a day’s earnings to raise money for Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), while a couple asked guests at their 60th wedding anniversary party to forego gifts and to instead make donations to help those in need.
Stories of Christian suffering and how the charity ACN is helping them leads many people to become benefactors. The foundation has 350,000 benefactors in more than 23 countries around the world. Some use their imagination to help even a little bit more.
This was the case with Sílvia Duarte, a hairdresser based near Lisbon, who on 13 May, the day of Our Lady of Fatima – a date of special relevance in her country – directed all the money earned in her salon to helping the Church in Cabo Delgado, a region in Mozambique where an Islamist insurgency has been raging since 2017.
From morning to evening, Sílvia Duarte worked hard, serving regular clients and those who went especially for the occasion, raising a total of €3,000 which was donated to ACN.
“Everything is possible with Mary. I picked this special day, which Our Lady chose to appear to the shepherd children in Fatima, as a way of thanking the Mother of God for everything she has done for me throughout my life,” Sílvia told ACN.
This was not the first time Sílvia Duarte went the extra mile to help her persecuted and needy brothers and sisters. In fact, just over a year ago she went over 13 miles in a race in Lisbon, all to call attention to the plight of the people of Cabo Delgado, raising over €5,000 for ACN.
Following her recent choice to offer a day’s work to the pontifical foundation, she told ACN that the amount raised had exceeded her expectations. “It was amazing. But even if we had raised less, it still would have been worth it, just to raise awareness about what is happening in Cabo Delgado, where communities are attacked and forced to flee, constantly living in fear. Knowing that this initiative of mine is going to help to alleviate the suffering of so many families is all the reward I could hope for.”
Her dedication to the cause led the Bishop of Pemba, whose diocese covers the province of Cabo Delgado, to ask to meet with her when he visited Portugal, to thank her and congratulate her.
A fruitful marriage
Sílvia Duarte’s generosity also inspired others to organise their own initiatives. João and Maria Teresa Mendonça were planning to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary with family and friends, and asked their guests to make a donation instead of giving them presents, to ACN to help the Church in Mozambique.
In their particular case, there was an emotional factor to their decision, as they met and married in Mozambique in 1965, when the African state was still a Portuguese colony.
“I was born in Mozambique and back then I remember following the work of the missions,” says Maria Teresa. “I was very moved to learn that there are new difficulties in the region of Cabo Delgado, so we thought it would be important to raise funds to help all these people who are doing so badly, who are subjected to so much persecution.”
The couple personally visited the offices of ACN Portugal, in Lisbon, to deliver the amount of €1,100 raised at their party, telling staff that ACN programmes on television help them to stay up to date with the needs of the suffering Church around the world.
Perhaps as significant as the money raised – which directly helped provide food for 30 families or around 180 people in this crisis region – is the fact that through their gesture many other people became aware of what is happening in Mozambique, where the Church continues to provide relief and support to hundreds of thousands of refugees of the insurgency which, since 2017, has killed over 5,000 people, and left entire communities destroyed.
By Paulo Aido.
