A Visit from Gilles

This week we had the privilege of a visit from our Area Welfare Manager from Frankfurt, Gilles François.  He is a delightful person and we enjoyed taking him to meet our partners.

We took him to see the health clinic located within the Pilorinho community center.  To the right is a photo of some of the people who gave volunteer hours of labor to make the center possible, this was taken about two weeks ago.  The health center is now largely completed.


This is a photo of many members of the Pilorinho community center including Nós Saude president Raimundo, our translator, Noeme, and Gilles.  The view is from Achada Grande Frente, overlooking the port of Praia.  We took a walking tour of the Achada Grande neighborhood with Raimundo as tour guide and Gilles as special guest.

We also took Gilles to meet our wonderful partners Pastor João and his wife Elizabeth of Remar.  Remar is an organization that works rehabilitating those who have lost opportunity through addiction or bad choices.  It is internationally recognized.  LDS Charities provided the bunk beds in the background.

Gilles was a rock star interacting with the current residents at the Remar facility, some of whom spoke English or French (Gilles is a French resident of Germany). We had a lot of fun together.










Here is a photo of the Remar residents outside.  They willing participated in the photo, but some preferred not to be recognized.  There was a wonderful feeling as we left.










Our second day with Gilles was focused on member welfare projects, primarily the chicken project we are wrapping up.  After meeting with local priesthood and seeing some of the completed coops in homes, Gilles felt that ongoing oversight was a good idea.  Elder Biven will begin visiting the locations again to check on people and help them as he can.   Egg output was low at many locations, we think the chickens may not be getting enough food and water.  Perhaps we can encourage our participants and help them improve.