A culture of peace broadens its reach

MISSIONER NEWSLETTER – Winter 2025

Kathy Bond and Flávio Rocha, Brazil

The AFYA in Action school team closes out the year with gratitude and joy for practices that support well-being and connection.

Advent greetings from northeastern Brazil. In the midst of so much brokenness in our world, we pray that you are finding sources of hope and light.

We start with the good news that our EcoRetreat is being replicated in the United States. Last August we facilitated an EcoRetreat for a group of 13 people from several states, organized by the Maryknoll Affiliate group based in Ohio. Two of the participants came from the Maryknoll Affiliate group in California, and they successfully led a retreat in Monrovia, California, last weekend for 15 people. We are very happy that groups are interested in coming together to reflect on their spirituality connected to God’s creation. We continue offering our EcoRetreats here in João Pessoa and throughout the Northeast region, and we hope to expand to other parts of Brazil next year.

Flavio Rocha leads students through grounding and self-regulation exercises that help them manage stress and build emotional resilience in the classroom.

Last month we concluded this year’s activities of Project AFYA in Action in the Public Schools: Building a Culture of Peace. It has been a bright spot in our ministries over the last three years.

The project’s main goal is to reduce violence among children and adolescents in nine public schools in João Pessoa by training students, educators, and staff in emotion management and techniques to better deal with anxiety, stress, and violence prevention. Monthly trainings for educators and school health professionals are a cornerstone of the project, allowing the learnings to be multiplied daily through their interactions with students.

Our desired outcomes include decreased truancy due to health problems; decreased rates of self-harm; decreased failure rates; improved concentration and reading levels; reduced violence and bullying; and an increased culture of peace in the schools.

Flavio and I work on a team with two Brazilian educators and a Maryknoll Sister. We have received wonderful feedback on how the project is making a difference in participants’ lives and wanted to share a few excerpts with you:

From Maria da Silva, 14-year-old student at Municipal School Deputado Arnaldo, João Pessoa, Paraíba:

“Auntie, I would like to thank everyone that the Project AFYA in Action in the Public Schools exists. Since I started participating in the workshops, I began to feel better. After starting to do the techniques to deal with stress and anxiety, I have learned to live in a new way and I have stopped taking anti-anxiety medicine. I am so grateful to have AFYA in my life. And now I am helping my grandma, who takes strong prescription medicine for her nerves, to breathe deeply and do the exercises. I hope that she will also cure herself and be able to stop taking the meds. Thank you, Auntie, for teaching us so many good things for our health.”

From Bruna Ferreira, co-facilitator of the workshops at the Arnaldo School and our team member:

“Maria grew so much during the year. She was so quiet at the beginning. Slowly she opened up—even to the point of sharing moments of violence and deep suffering. I was so pleased with this last sharing. She hardly ever smiled, and even this changed.”

Thank you for making this project possible. With your generous donations, we were able to reach more than 5,000 students and staff this year in nine schools, and we plan to expand to ten schools in 2026!

We wish you a Blessed Christmas and a Joyous 2026.

In peace and gratitude,
Flavio José Rocha and Kathy Bond

Please consider supporting our mission work in João Pessoa with a donation through the link below.

We invite you to walk with us as our “COMPANIONS IN MISSION.” Companions in Mission are friends and generous donors who give financial gifts on a regular (usually monthly) basis. For more information, visit Become a Companion in Mission. Thank you so much for your generosity!