CASA ABRAÇO GETS A BOOST:
Brasilia Away Hash embraces Day Home for children, benefitting 300 in Goias’ poorest district
A weekend away for Hashers turns into a labor of love and permanent benefit for youth human development center
By Milan Sime Martinic
Tears ran down the faces of grown men and women on a field near the town of Morro Encantado em Cavalcante this past May 14 on the Goias Planalto highlands. They were tears of emotion that blended into smiles as hasher Tifin Calcagni revealed the big hearts of the drinking and running bunch, the Brasilia Hash House Harriers to Eliza Soares da Silva and Jayme do Nascimento Teixera, founders and administrators of Casa Abraço, a non-profit human development day home for children and adolescents
The hashers were there as part of an Away Hash and its annual Red Dress run, a global event that occurs locally for the thousands of Hash House Harriers clubs around the world. This year Brasilia Hash Master Welf Herfurth, hash name Opulence, chose the Chapada dos Veadeiros in Goiás, along the central highlands near Alto Paraiso. As part of the extensive scouting and preparation for the weekend event, hasher Adair Trindade dos Santos, a recognized human rights defender and forest firefighter who often works in the area, introduced Herfurth and the hashers to the good works of Casa Abraço.
The day home serves children from 5 years-old to 19, open daily with its priority the personalized human development of adolescents and children in an area characterized by extreme poverty, high social inequality, and a deficiency of services particularly at the educational level for its youth as well as a dearth of social, recreational, or cultural activities.
For the local society, this meant poor performance at school and in society, stunted progress, limited vision and opportunity, high school dropout rates for children of all ages, early pregnancy, and a cycle of continued vulnerability, exploitation, and abject poverty as much economic as of sprit.
Enter Soares and Teixera 10 years ago, an artisan and retired civil servant and her retired physics teacher husband from Brasilia who moved to Morro Encantado in the region in search of life harmony and to practice her craft. Soon their home became a place where children would show up frequently “first discreetly and shyly, then regularly and passionately,” to learn “things” or paint “things,” tells Soares, noting she always welcomed them with “love, care, and respect.”
Over the years, her home became a project to embrace the children of the region, many of them still malnourished and society-neglected Kalunga descendants from Brazil’s slaveholding past. Soares and Teixera’s Casa Abraço now serves 300 children providing activities and meals with what Soares describes a goal of “integral human development based on universal values and great transforming power of thigs such as creativity, focus, harmony, discernment, commitment, purpose, and truth.”
They do this through a course of extra-curricular activities that promote the intellectual and creative development of the children who come to the home from refuge, many of them victims of physical and sexual abuse.
It is this commitment that captured the hearts and commitment from the Brasilia hashers in awe and appreciation of the dissolution of the personal ego into something larger, something that changes lives and creates a better society one child at a time.
To the Brasilia hashers, the weekend fun became a compromise with life and the power of contributing to the essential happiness of others so their lives can continue to benefit from the sustainable gift of personal growth, critical thinking, and love provided to these children.
People and resources were mobilized in an all-out effort to raise the funds, select, purchase, and deliver the refrigeration units. The surfeit of hasher generous goodwill and heart resulted in an extra donation of foodstuffs to fill the refrigerator and freezer units and the house’s pantry. But the hashers were not done. What good is a freezer if you can't have ice cream? They made sure to fill the children’s days with visions of ice cream scoops and frozen castles in the air, by providing enough ice cream for sweet treats and sunshine memories for the hundreds of kids. And that wasn’t all. Clothes and toys were also part of the snap Hasher Care Package.
“The magnificence and kindness that the group put together was more than I could have hoped for,” said Herfurth. “It was a lot that we achieved.” It was, indeed, opulence for those who never had it.
"This will make a big difference," said Soares in tears.
The gifts will improve the services and the nutritional benefits to the children, but they will also help the hashers feel their interests wider and more impersonal, more in tune with the spiritual nature of the Alto Paraiso region. Everyone now merged more closely with the universal life and human existence, said Herfurth. “On On.”
# # #
______________________________
Op-Ed
Taking Humanity and Humanitarian Action as Seriously as Hashing to Help People in Ukraine
By Welf Herfurth
Herfurth is the Hash Master of BH3
Brasilia Hash House Harriers
For the last 2 weeks, I have been working with Hashers and people around the world to help Hashers, and other people find safe passage to leave Ukraine and find accommodations around Europe. The terrifying war has turned the chalk hare into a tireless and formidable effort which we are chasing to deliver life-saving and life-rebuilding assistance.
The current Hash Master in Kyiv, Zakhedul Islam, is carrying out the work on the scene in Ukraine. With life and treasure on the line, the Hash House Harriers have several people on the ground in the western city of Lviv, under attack today, where we have organized a warehouse as a rallying point and place to store donations to pass on to people in need.
Zakhedul is working for the organization Alliance For Public Health, https://aph.org.ua, which supports community action working with direct medical care to HIV and TB patients and recovering people, and which has been of invaluable support to the effort in humanitarian assistance. They have partnered up with IPPF, https://sar.ippf.org/our-work, and are receiving supplies on reproductive, maternal, and child health from the WHO|Stop TB partnership, as well as other humanitarian supplies from other organizations.
Hashers from Poland are making regular runs from Warsaw to Lviv to deliver donations to the warehouse as well as take people back. This group is organized by Matthew Prudente, a Hasher from DC and he has the logistical support of former Polish Special Forces.
To date, the group’s efforts have spirited away 6 female Hashers from Ukraine into Poland; the Hashers on the ground arranged temporary accommodations, and in two cases transportation into other countries. Their mission, however, is to help everyone in need, and they are doing that.
While our group is receiving a lot of medical and humanitarian supplies from the different organizations, they are in desperate need of helmets and bulletproof vests for those on the ground, on the frontlines of this effort. These items are not supplied by the partner organizations as they can be seen as military supplies.
Matthew has funded the purchase of a bus and several other vehicles out of his own pocket. But there is a need for funds for the ongoing hard costs of the operation such as fuel and other supplies. For this, they are asking for your help.
I am asking BH3 members and members of our community for their help. A small donation to help Zakhedul and Matthew and the people in desperate need in Ukraine can make a difference in saving lives, even from this distance. We have arranged to receive your contributions to this effort and to forward it to the field through their US account. As a matter of transparency, I have set up a governance policy and process, keeping a list of all donations and donors, and tracing the funds to the front lines for anyone to review.
To help, please contact me directly at herfurth@iinet.net.au and you will receive details.
Thank you in advance and On On.
CASA ABRAÇO GETS A BOOST:
Brasilia Away Hash embraces Day Home for children, benefitting 300 in Goias’ poorest district
A weekend away for Hashers turns into a labor of love and permanent benefit for youth human development center
By Milan Sime Martinic
Tears ran down the faces of grown men and women on a field near the town of Morro Encantado em Cavalcante this past May 14 on the Goias Planalto highlands. They were tears of emotion that blended into smiles as hasher Tifin Calcagni revealed the big hearts of the drinking and running bunch, the Brasilia Hash House Harriers to Eliza Soares da Silva and Jayme do Nascimento Teixera, founders and administrators of Casa Abraço, a non-profit human development day home for children and adolescents
The hashers were there as part of an Away Hash and its annual Red Dress run, a global event that occurs locally for the thousands of Hash House Harriers clubs around the world. This year Brasilia Hash Master Welf Herfurth, hash name Opulence, chose the Chapada dos Veadeiros in Goiás, along the central highlands near Alto Paraiso. As part of the extensive scouting and preparation for the weekend event, hasher Adair Trindade dos Santos, a recognized human rights defender and forest firefighter who often works in the area, introduced Herfurth and the hashers to the good works of Casa Abraço.
The day home serves children from 5 years-old to 19, open daily with its priority the personalized human development of adolescents and children in an area characterized by extreme poverty, high social inequality, and a deficiency of services particularly at the educational level for its youth as well as a dearth of social, recreational, or cultural activities.
For the local society, this meant poor performance at school and in society, stunted progress, limited vision and opportunity, high school dropout rates for children of all ages, early pregnancy, and a cycle of continued vulnerability, exploitation, and abject poverty as much economic as of sprit.
Enter Soares and Teixera 10 years ago, an artisan and retired civil servant and her retired physics teacher husband from Brasilia who moved to Morro Encantado in the region in search of life harmony and to practice her craft. Soon their home became a place where children would show up frequently “first discreetly and shyly, then regularly and passionately,” to learn “things” or paint “things,” tells Soares, noting she always welcomed them with “love, care, and respect.”
Over the years, her home became a project to embrace the children of the region, many of them still malnourished and society-neglected Kalunga descendants from Brazil’s slaveholding past. Soares and Teixera’s Casa Abraço now serves 300 children providing activities and meals with what Soares describes a goal of “integral human development based on universal values and great transforming power of thigs such as creativity, focus, harmony, discernment, commitment, purpose, and truth.”
They do this through a course of extra-curricular activities that promote the intellectual and creative development of the children who come to the home from refuge, many of them victims of physical and sexual abuse.
It is this commitment that captured the hearts and commitment from the Brasilia hashers in awe and appreciation of the dissolution of the personal ego into something larger, something that changes lives and creates a better society one child at a time.
To the Brasilia hashers, the weekend fun became a compromise with life and the power of contributing to the essential happiness of others so their lives can continue to benefit from the sustainable gift of personal growth, critical thinking, and love provided to these children.
People and resources were mobilized in an all-out effort to raise the funds, select, purchase, and deliver the refrigeration units. The surfeit of hasher generous goodwill and heart resulted in an extra donation of foodstuffs to fill the refrigerator and freezer units and the house’s pantry. But the hashers were not done. What good is a freezer if you can't have ice cream? They made sure to fill the children’s days with visions of ice cream scoops and frozen castles in the air, by providing enough ice cream for sweet treats and sunshine memories for the hundreds of kids. And that wasn’t all. Clothes and toys were also part of the snap Hasher Care Package.
“The magnificence and kindness that the group put together was more than I could have hoped for,” said Herfurth. “It was a lot that we achieved.” It was, indeed, opulence for those who never had it.
"This will make a big difference," said Soares in tears.
The gifts will improve the services and the nutritional benefits to the children, but they will also help the hashers feel their interests wider and more impersonal, more in tune with the spiritual nature of the Alto Paraiso region. Everyone now merged more closely with the universal life and human existence, said Herfurth. “On On.”
# # #
______________________________
Op-Ed
Taking Humanity and Humanitarian Action as Seriously as Hashing to Help People in Ukraine
By Welf Herfurth
Herfurth is the Hash Master of BH3
Brasilia Hash House Harriers
For the last 2 weeks, I have been working with Hashers and people around the world to help Hashers, and other people find safe passage to leave Ukraine and find accommodations around Europe. The terrifying war has turned the chalk hare into a tireless and formidable effort which we are chasing to deliver life-saving and life-rebuilding assistance.
The current Hash Master in Kyiv, Zakhedul Islam, is carrying out the work on the scene in Ukraine. With life and treasure on the line, the Hash House Harriers have several people on the ground in the western city of Lviv, under attack today, where we have organized a warehouse as a rallying point and place to store donations to pass on to people in need.
Zakhedul is working for the organization Alliance For Public Health, https://aph.org.ua, which supports community action working with direct medical care to HIV and TB patients and recovering people, and which has been of invaluable support to the effort in humanitarian assistance. They have partnered up with IPPF, https://sar.ippf.org/our-work, and are receiving supplies on reproductive, maternal, and child health from the WHO|Stop TB partnership, as well as other humanitarian supplies from other organizations.
Hashers from Poland are making regular runs from Warsaw to Lviv to deliver donations to the warehouse as well as take people back. This group is organized by Matthew Prudente, a Hasher from DC and he has the logistical support of former Polish Special Forces.
To date, the group’s efforts have spirited away 6 female Hashers from Ukraine into Poland; the Hashers on the ground arranged temporary accommodations, and in two cases transportation into other countries. Their mission, however, is to help everyone in need, and they are doing that.
While our group is receiving a lot of medical and humanitarian supplies from the different organizations, they are in desperate need of helmets and bulletproof vests for those on the ground, on the frontlines of this effort. These items are not supplied by the partner organizations as they can be seen as military supplies.
Matthew has funded the purchase of a bus and several other vehicles out of his own pocket. But there is a need for funds for the ongoing hard costs of the operation such as fuel and other supplies. For this, they are asking for your help.
I am asking BH3 members and members of our community for their help. A small donation to help Zakhedul and Matthew and the people in desperate need in Ukraine can make a difference in saving lives, even from this distance. We have arranged to receive your contributions to this effort and to forward it to the field through their US account. As a matter of transparency, I have set up a governance policy and process, keeping a list of all donations and donors, and tracing the funds to the front lines for anyone to review.
To help, please contact me directly at herfurth@iinet.net.au and you will receive details.
Thank you in advance and On On.
# # #
Understanding why
the Dollar is falling vs. the Real
By Milan Sime Martinic
The dollar lost nearly 5% of its value versus the real in January. On the last day of the month, it fell by 1.57% to R$5.30, marking the lowest since September last year. Understanding the whys of that vertiginous fall is essential to get an idea of what to expect and to protect oneself against such unexpected losses.
Traders point to interest rates as the culprit. Whereas rates in the US are at nearly zero, rates in Brazil are in double digits, at 10.75% attracting investors in search of a better return, and increasing the country's foreign reserves, say analysts.
The weakening dollar is also a reflection of inflation fears, say economists at Goldman Sachs. In response, the Fed is considering a rise in interest rates, and the markets are reacting in anticipation.
With interest rates rising in the US, investors are moving out of tech stocks and into commodities. The Brazilian exchange is composed of practically a third of commodities, a fact that is currently attracting more money to the country.
A suddenly hawkish tightening of US monetary policy would usually be expected to support the value of the dollar, however, if one looks at how little interest rates are expected to ultimately rise once the Fed begins the rate-hike cycle, said Kit Juckes, global macro strategist at Société Générale, explaining the greenback's continued weakening.
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