Sister Melissa, a social worker, has been working for a year at the Paulo Freire Institute in Żejtun, Malta, founded by the Maltese Jesuits to promote literacy and community development.
“My commitment as a social worker in this institution responds to the charism of the Sisters of Charity in that ours is a mission in the spiritual and temporal service of the poor.
Every day I meet people who are homeless, hungry, illiterate, and all forms of spiritual and material poverty. Through the various interventions and the work done at the Paulo Freire Institute, we try to respond to these needs and at the same time create projects to prevent situations of poverty and disadvantage.
Therefore, following the example of St. Jeanne Antide, I also try to see the reality of the poor, to look at the person in all their dimensions in different situations.
This service leads me to see at the heart of every situation God’s love for the poor, and His will to save them. The mission I carry out at Paulo Freire also gives me the opportunity to find and invent the necessary means to help these brothers and sisters who are in need in a spirit of collaboration with other interested people. I live a service that calls me every day to -love God and my brothers and sisters, members of Jesus Christ, with all my heart and with all my strength-“.
This was of the non-formal education realities that the Education Office had the opportunity to meet during its visit. You can discover this work by visiting their website: https://www.facebook.com/pfimalta
Paulo Freire, from Brazil, was an educator who mainly cared for the poorest people who did not have access to education. He developed a very effective literacy system and a world-renowned pedagogy. He is known as the pedagogue of hope. His ideas also became the basis for countless democratic movements around the world. For Freire, education is a matter of life, not study.
In 1968, he published his first book, Education as the Practice of Freedom. His fame grew and he was invited to teach at Harvard University. In the United States, he was able to greatly develop his pedagogical theses. His work Pedagogy of the Oppressed made him world famous. His life and work continue to inspire thousands of teachers around the world.
“It is not in silence that men are made,
but in speech, in work, in action-reflection.”
P. Freire
