This artwork portrays one of the first family homes of Cidade da Criança – Vale da Bênção Ministry. A special place, surrounded by a beautiful natural landscape, where nine houses were built that welcomed hundreds of children and adolescents.

At first, it was just a dream. However, as churches and families became involved and partnered with the project, it began to take shape. Children and adolescents who were victims of violence, abandonment, and orphanhood arrived, referred by juvenile and family courts from their regions.

Cidade da Criança represented a safe space where they were loved and cared for so they could grow and develop fully and, whenever possible, return to their biological families or be placed with adoptive families.

More than twenty years have passed, and these houses continue to fulfill their mission. They now also welcome families forced to leave their homeland due to political and social conflicts, wars, violence, and religious persecution.

Families from Egypt, Yemen, Nigeria, Syria, and Venezuela have passed through these homes. They remain temporarily until they are strengthened and able to establish their own homes.

“He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. Therefore, love the foreigner.”
Deuteronomy 10:18–19

Silmara Maucoski (Ponta Grossa/PR)
Pedagogue; former coordinator of Cidade da Criança in Araçariguama/SP.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silmaramaucoskii/

Artwork presented in 2022 at the VI Refugees Forum
Theme: “Challenged to Welcome”