“I cordially greet the authorities, the health workers, the sick, their families and all those here present. In seeing how skillfully, professionally and lovingly you care for and welcome so many sick people, practically AIDS/HIV infected people, mostly women and children, I am reminded of the parable of the Good Samaritan”. Thus the Pope at the DREAM centre of the Community of Sant'Egidio in Zimpeto. “All those who have passed by - he said - all those who have arrived here in despair and anguish resemble that abandoned man at the edge of the road. Indeed, you have not passed by on the opposite side, you have not continued on your own way as others do (a Levite and a priest). The Centre shows us that there have been people who stopped and felt compassion; they have not given in to the temptation and said “there is nothing to do”, “it is impossible to fight this plague” but have worked courageously to find solutions”. On his arrival the Pope was welcomed by professor Andrea Riccardi, the founder of Sant'Egidio and Mrs Cacilda Massango, the coordinator of the DREAM Centre in Zimpeto, who expressed in her greeting the joy with the Pope’s visit in this place where “medicines, care, food and above all dignity and friendship are given free of charge”. “Here at Zimpeto, many sick women have recuperated their strength and have offered to help other sick people accompanying them during the treatment I myself - concluded Cacilda Massango– am one of the first patients who DREAM met at the very beginning. I chose to give back what I had received. I was a suffering young woman, cast away and looked down by everybody. DREAM was like a new family to me. It gave me dignity and hope of a future for my children besides treatment. Since then thousands of Mozambicans have been reborn just like me”.
At the end of his visit, the Pope was given a pastoral in the form of a cross, made of sheet metal and straw, remains from houses destroyed by Cyclone Idai that hit Beira and its neighbourhood last March.
At the end of his visit, the Pope was given a pastoral in the form of a cross, made of sheet metal and straw, remains from houses destroyed by Cyclone Idai
