The Association “Il Padre Pellegrino” was founded in 1998 with the aim of supporting the St. Michael Arcangel Opera founded by the lay missionary Marco Roberto Bertoli.
The work of this opera, located in the southeastern part of Brazil, has the purpose of welcoming and supporting, through specific educational paths, the “meninos de rua”, street children who would otherwise be abandoned to their destiny. For a street child, in Brazil, living more than twenty years is a difficult milestone to reach.
For this purpose, our Association supports all the activities aimed at putting children and adolescents into the mission such as hospitality, health care, school and professional education, all in a family atmosphere and respectful of the community they are in.
It also supports microprojects such as livestock breeding and vocational schools in different fields, with the aim of providing professional qualifications for these children and at the same time achieving economic autonomy.
Our believe is that such a well-articulated help offered to these children is the seed necessary to restore their dignity and pave the way for freedom that is individual and social growth.
At the same time it allows us to think about these different realities and to contribute, through a renewed sense of donation, to the development of a global community. The Association is a no profit and pursues exclusively social solidarity and charity purposes. It also received the recognition of Onlus in 2008 and the “Peace Prize” from the Lombardy Region, in Italy, in 2009.