|
Japa Vietnam has been present in these regions of mountain people since
7 years ago, in collaboration with us to serve the minority ethnic groups
of Phuoc Long.
The first project was the building of two houses to accept the children
of the ethnic minorities' villages at the center run by the Sisters of
Our Lady in Long Dien. Year after year the numbers of internees have steadily
grown. During the 1999-2000 scholar year the number of children reached
50. This project that seems buried in the past has now a very important
role and is of great service day after day.
I would like to recall also your first steps into the villages of mountain
people. Often, you were not able to see them, but your hearts could feel
the appeals of ethnic people, a totally different world. Our first encounter
brought us full joy in all simplicity. In spite of the language barriers,
you could make exchanges with the people. Smiling is the language of the
heart and through it we have become linked forever with the ethnic minorities.
Through our contacts I came to understand the meaning of the word Japa
Vietnam you have selected for your group.
In fact, you never had many opportunities to visit the villages. You were
only able to visit a few. It will be difficult to grasp what you found
in these far away places, as well as what you may have given to the people
there, but, most probably, each time you left the villages your hearts
were filled with the joy of having met the people there. Visiting the villages
you could feel that you could help villagers to get rid of their suffering,
but upon sharing their simple meals with smiling faces you could immediately
understand what real happiness means.
The roads to the villages are, in other words, the ways and the greetings for you and for us: Japan and Vietnam. We are waiting in those places every year to have a feeling of life.
|
From Phuoc Long you came once to Loc Ninh to assist in the opening of a Primary School in the jungle. There you met many children who had arrived from various far away villages, but the school could not survive long for simple political reasons you know quite well. In spite of difficulties we continue to trace the way into the villages of mountain people.
Last year we made inroads into new villages of Phuoc Long and Loc Ninh.
In the near future we will have the opportunity of meeting together in
those new villages, not to resolve the problems of the poor ethnic people,
but to share their life. Please, make time for it.
Now is the time of famine in the villages. What have we heard from those
men and women who are suffering of hunger? The answer is that, once we
meet each other we are bound by loving each other. The causes of the famine
are multiple, but our responsibility arises from the two words, Japa -
Vietnam, resounding in our hearts.
Today you came to greet us all the way from Japan to Vietnam and tomorrow
you leave us, but we will always remember the way we walked together to
the villages. From Vietnam, we wait for you in the new roads. We, also,
must walk those long roads that lead us to the hearts of our masses and
of the ethnic minorities.
This is our program.
|
