2015 09 sammss newsletter

SUNDERBAN ADIBASHI MUNDA MOHILA SOMOBAY SOMITI Ltd.Year: 02 SAMMSS NEWSLETTERSAMMSS NEWSLETTER Number: 09Place: Jisur Nam Ashram Date: 11-10-2015

Dear Readers,Last month we informed you that three Munda young ladies would go to Italy to attend an international meeting on microcredit.The present Newsletter of September 2015 will be completely on their adventurous journey into another world and culture and society so different from theirs.Enjoy some beautiful pictures about this adventure and have a look at what the three Munda young ladies have written about it.

DIARY OF OUR JURNEY1 The night of the 5th of September 2015 the three of us, Nilima Munda, Chompa Munda and Shaionti Munda, set out for Italy with Etihad Airlines. After a long stop at Abu Dhabi airport we reached Milano in the afternoon and from there Fr Luigi’s nephew took us to Sorico where we got lodging and accommodation in Fr. Luigi’s house.

1

2 We were quite cold so the next day Annamaria and Joyce provided us with a lot of warm clothes which were extremely useful to us.

The same day in the afternoon we went to Elia’s town (Fenegrò) to watch an extraordinary exhibition called Palio.

2

3 We rested for a couple of days and then a lot of invitations started coming. We were invited by don Giuseppe’s relatives and then Manu and Clem. At Manu’s house we were able to see a vine yard for the first time and to pluck grapes with our own hands.

3

4

4 On the 12th of September Dr. Natalia invited us to have lunch with her parents and then she took us to visit the Duomo of Milano,something very impressive!

5

5 On the 16th of September Dr. Marco and his wife Adriana took us to a nice village in which there is a wonderful garden full of various fruit trees, a wonderful result from Dr. Marco’s hard work.

6

6 On the 18th we went to Tavernerio where we met our old (but always young) friend Monica and her group from Switzerland.

7

7 On the 19th we went to the mountains up to the Swiss border. It was extremely cold and we stayed only a short time… if we would have stayed more we think we would have turned into statues of ice!

8

8 Then in the afternoon we went to Rovello Porro, a town not very far from Milano. Our friends Fabio and Elia and Chiara and Francesca provided us with lodging and accommodation for two nights.

9

9 We spent two full days at Expo Milano 2015.On the 20th of September we attended in the morning the ceremony for the Bangladesh National day.

In the afternoon we took part in the meeting for the presentation of the project “Per un Sari Rosa” that took place in the very elegant space “Me and We - Woman for Expo” at Padiglione Italia.

10

On the 21st of September we took part in the meeting “Social Agriculture and Microcredit”, in the Auditorium of Padiglione Italia.Nilima Munda and Fr. Luigi spoke about the miserable situation of women in the Indian Subcontinent and about the credit union set up by the Munda girls. Their lectures and speeches were quite appreciated in the occasion of both meetings.

10 From Milano we went to Parma where we spent the night in the “Casa Madre” of the Xaverian Missionaries and where we met several friends.

11 The next day with Manu and Clem we went to Reggio Emilia to visit some friends of theirs.

11

12 We returned dead tired to Sorico, where on the 25th of September we had a nice meeting in the St. Stephen’s Church with a lot of people who came to listen to our stories.There were also Dr. Marco and Dr. Natalia who spoke about their experience at our Mission in Bangladesh, and they promised to come again for giving medical free care to the poor people of our villages .

12

13 The next evening we were invited by Mr. Baffo to a village feast where people were eating and drinking and dancing… but it was very cold so we did not stay for a long time.

13

14 On the 28th we went to Sondrio where again a lot of people came to see us and to listen to our stories.

14

15 The next morning (29th) we went to Pinerolo-Torino to meet Mr. Carlo Travaglini, representative of Lions International and of the Lions District 108 IA3 who are helping us to restructure the logistics of our small Christian Mission at Isshoripur.

16 The next day (30th) we prepared our luggage and went back to Bangladesh.

Planes are a very good invention. We are used to travel by bus in Bangladesh. It would take a very long time to drive 14.385 km!

15

BRIEF REMARKS FROM THE THREE MUNDA YOUNG LADIES ABOUT THEIR JOURNEY TO ITALY

Shaionti Munda: On the 4th of September 2015 I boarded a plane for the first time in my life. I was a little bit scared when the plane took off and landed.I spent almost one month in Italy which is a very beautiful Country.Every corner of that Country is neat and clean. Bangladeshi people would have so much to learn in this regard.Then I was amazed to see so much discipline on the roads and so much punctuality: something unthinkable for our people in Bangladesh.Briefly, I liked everything in Italy except food which is not tasty at all!

Chompa Munda: I spent 26 days in Italy. This is what I liked best:- The environment so neat and clean.- People busy with their work: nobody wastes time.- Punctuality… for everything: transports… meetings..etc.- Importance given to every kind of work as every kind of work is

important for social welfare and well being.- Respect and honour given to women who can be found working in

every field… our Bangladeshi women have a very long way to go.- Sincere affection and love shown to us by all the people we met.And this is what I did not like too much:- Food which was not so suitable to our tastes.- Too little respect from children towards their parents: children calling

their parents by name is some kind of a sin in our culture.- Young girls not too much dressed during hot weather.

Nilima Munda:We spent almost one month in Italy.I was impressed by: - The beauty of Duomo of Milano.- The grandeur of EXPO Milano2015 and its efficient management.- The respect and honour given to the three of us who had the

opportunity to speak in front of very important people… something which will never happen in our Country.

16

- The affection and love bestowed on us wherever we went.I did not like the scoldings from Fr. Luigi as we were never ready to leave for catching trains or attending meetings. Fr. Luigi has not learnt yet that we are women and women need plenty of time to make themselves beautiful. Luckily Fr. Luigi is not married… otherwise his wife would have had a very miserable life… because of him!

THANK YOU! This adventure of ours would have never been possible without the precious help and co-operation of so many people.In this Newsletter we would like to express our sincere and heartfelt gratefulness to the following persons: Ms. Denise Giraudo whose contribution to the capital of our small

co-operative through the project “Per un Sari Rosa” first and then through the other project called “Disubbidienza è vita” started the march of the rebel and disobedient Munda girls, a march which has taken them up to EXPO Milano 2105.

Mr. Enrico Maria Pollo, Denise’s husband, whose determination was able to clear off all the obstacles for getting the entry visa for Italy.

Mr. Andrea Olivero, Vice Ministro delle politiche agricole e alimentari, who mentioned the humanitarian work done by the Xaverian Missionaries in Bangladesh and shook hands with Nilima Munda, a tribal girl from the Sunderban Forest who had never dreamed of meeting such an important person.

Mr. Bruno Pasquino, Commissario Generale EXPO 2015, whose encouraging words were so precious for Ms. Nilima Munda for speaking in front of so many important people.

Dottoressa Diana Bracco who stressed the importance of taking good care of young girls during that important meeting at “Me and We - Woman for Expo”.

Ms. Loredana Ulivi who made arrangements for our plane tickets on behalf of Mr. Mario Baccini, Presidente dell’Ente Nazionale per il Microcredito.

Mr. Mauro Vignola and his precious concern about us: he sent a car to pick us up the day of the meeting on Social Agriculture and Microcredit as we were quite far away from the Padiglione Italia where we were supposed to talk.

17

Mr. Alfredo Poma and his wife Ms. Arabella Rossi who played the role of guardian angels for the three Munda girls and their caretaker. Mr. Alfredo’s hard work in preparing powerpoint presentations and offering advice and suggestions was extremely important for making the various meetings quite successful. We’ll never be able to repay him back for his great help!

Ms. Manuela and his adoptive son Clement who took us around in their car sparing us a lot of time we would have wasted travelling with public transport.

Don Giuseppe who has been helping our work in Bangladesh for ages and whenever we return to Italy he always finds out new ways for entertaining us.

Dr. Marco who several times showed us beautiful landscapes and whose wife Adriana prepared for us luxurious meals.

Annamaria and Joyce for providing warm clothes to us who were shivering with cold as soon as we arrived in Italy.

Dr. Natalia and her parents for having arranged a luxurios meal and Angelo, Natalia’s friend, for showing us that impressive building which is the Duomo of Milano.

Monia for the excellent cakes she prepared for us several times and for having taken us around with her beautiful daughters.

Apu Didi and Mariuccia who went to see us at the airport before leaving for Bangladesh.

Monica Munda Ruggeri who brought several ladies from Switzerland to have a joyful evening with us at Tavernerio.

Cristina, Fr. Luigi’s old friend, who came to see us and gave us presents the evening we arrived in Parma.

Guido and Lalla, Manu’s friends, who arranged a huge meal for us in their beautiful house in a place which is similar to the Eden garden.

Mr. Virgilio Copes, the father of Guido Copes, the movie maker who produced that beautiful documentary film on the tribal Munda people of the Sunderban Forest. We know that he and his group has been supporting Fr. Luigi’s missionary work for more than 40 years. The successful evening we had in Sorico was possible also for his precious co-operation with Mr. Alfredo Poma.

18

Patrizia and her family with whom we spent two joyful evenings and who gave us three delicious bottles we have been able to bring to Bangladesh in spite of Bangladeshi strict customs officers.

Ms. Maria Grazia Vigo who has been following our activities for several years and organized a wonderful meal in her beautiful house and gave us delicious biscuits called ‘Basin de Sundri’.

Our intimate friends Fabio and Elia and their girl friends whose friendship and love and very kind of help and gifts will remain forever in our heart and in our memory.

Lidia and her group who organized for us a memorable meeting in Sondrio.

Duilio for having come to the airport to pick us up and to take us to Sorico and his mother Alba for preparing our room and for looking after us all the time.

Sonia and his husband for their gifts and Sonia’s father for his constant support to our work in Bangladesh.

Dr. Franca and her Bangladeshi husband Patrick Sagor who brought for us a delicious cake the evening we were in Parma.

Fr. Luigi’s friend Luigi and his wife Rosanna for having invited us to lunch and for their constant help to our activities in Bangladesh.

Don Angelo Pozzi who has been following our work with so much interest and the jucy lemons he gave us when we went to meet and greet and thank him.

Lorenza, Fr. Luigi’s second guardian angel, whom we met at the Hopsital where she works and who also came to visit us and gave us precious gifts.

Mr. Carlo Travaglini, representative of Lions International and of the Lions District 108 IA3, who was so pleased to see the ‘pricipessine’ as he would call the three Munda young ladies when they went to see him in Pinerolo. Also Mr. Carlo gave the “principessine” lovely presents.

And finally we would like to thank Don Roberto, the parish priest of Sorico and Ivan, the first citizen of Sorico, who came to visit and greet us in spite of being so busy with their work.

We’ll remember forever the generous Friends mentioned above and all other People who helped us and took part in our adventure. We send

19

them our sincere feelings of gratefulness. We wish them all the best. And we ask the Almighty to bless them and fulfill all the desires of their heart.

GRAZIE! Ricorderemo per sempre i generosi amici sopra menzionati che hanno reso possibile la nostra meravigliosa avventura. A loro e quant'altri ci hanno aiutato ed hanno partecipato così numerosi agli incontri, giungano i sensi della nostra sincera gratitudine e l'augurio di ogni bene. Preghiamo il Signore di benedirli tutti e conceder loro di realizzare ogni desiderio che abbiano in cuore, come noi abbiamo potuto realizzare il sogno di un viaggio attraverso un mondo e una cultura così differente dalla nostra, che ci ha permesso di arricchire le nostre conoscenze ed aprire la nostra mente a nuove esperienze, infondendoci molto coraggio nell’affrontare come donne il non facile cammino della trasformazione della nostra Tribù.

20

FILMATI E DOCUMENTI ONLINE - RELEVANT LINKS

20150906 Palio di Fenegròhttp://youtu.be/f7y70LoNaXM

20150912 Milano Duomo di Milanohttps://youtu.be/64qYbnYHhKQ

20150920 EXPO BD Dayhttps://youtu.be/aTKCZmAtdko

20150921 EXPO Convegno: Agricoltura Sociale e MicrocreditoIntervento di Nilima Munda (in inglese) e Padre Luigi Paggi (in italiano)https://youtu.be/nq_hF8i_UzQ

20150925 Sorico (in italiano)http://issuu.com/munda.education.centre.bd/docs/mtvm_20150925_sorico

20150928 Sondrio (in italiano)http://issuu.com/munda.education.centre.bd/docs/mtvm_20150928_sondrio

Comments, advice and suggestions about our Newsletter are welcome and can be sent [email protected]

Our Newsletters are online athttp://issuu.com/munda.education.centre.bd

21