On 30 July, a great many people gathered to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Nutritional Centre of Matola: hundreds of children — those who attend the Nutritional Centre and the Escolinha today, and those of many years ago, who are now mothers and fathers, who study, work and help the poorest. They serve meals at the Nutritional Centre to the children who come every day, they raise the youngest at the School of Peace, they bring dinner to those living on the streets, they visit the elderly in the city and on the outskirts of Matola. Today they are the Youth for Peace.

Also present were the children’s parents and the friends of the DREAM Centres, friends of the Communities of Maputo and Matola, together with a group of young people who had arrived in recent days from Treviso and helped prepare the celebration, and the donors and supporters who over the years have made it possible for the Centre to keep its doors always open, welcoming and feeding thousands of children with love.

Speakers at the celebration included Cacilda Massango, now coordinator of the DREAM Centre in Zimpeto; Isaias, who for many years welcomed the children to lunch at the nutritional centre with affection and personal attention to the stories and needs of the youngest; and Sergio, father of two girls who attended the Escolinha and the Centre’s sewing room — along with the testimonies of Maria and Nakitifa.

“Aqui é o meu verdadeiro Paraíso” — “This is my true Paradise” — said Maria, a young mother who grew up at the nutritional centre from childhood and who today works with her own sewing machine thanks to the classes she attended in the Centre’s Sewing Room. “I grew up here, in this house; these walls have seen me cry, laugh and dream. The Centre taught me what Peace, Love, Friendship and Respect for others really mean.” She then turned to all the children: “You are not alone. God has a beautiful plan for each one of your lives. Do not lose hope. I am the proof of it.”

Nakitifa spoke of her experience as a child who grew up at the nutritional centre, and of how her life changed as she discovered, with gratitude, the joy of serving those most in need. Today Nakitifa is one of the Youth for Peace, and is pursuing her dream of becoming a nurse.

During the celebration the children of the Escolinha performed a dance and several short plays on children’s rights, solidarity and friendship. The young people from the sewing room also performed, with a song and a dance. The day closed with the cutting of the cake and sweets shared among all the guests, in a celebration full of joy, emotion and cheerfulness that spread to everyone present.

Twenty years of the nutritional centre: twenty years in which the Community has supported with love the lives, the hopes and the dreams of so many. A miracle, a corner of Paradise on the outskirts of Maputo, made possible — and still being made possible — by the many hands and many hearts given over to the dream of life and love of so many little ones.