Projeto Consolação - The Consolation Project :   To support families living in the Nordeste de Amaralina, Salvador, Brazil, whose members have been assassinated as victims of urban violence, to deal with their grief, overcome isolation and the stigmatization experienced.

The Medical Missionaries of Mary live and work in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, since 1996, always in poorer neighbourhoods, marked by violence and a high incidence of substance abuse. They have been working in Nordeste de Amaralina neighbourhood since 2000 and are known and respected by the people.  The population of the Nordeste de Amaralina, Salvador, is on the lower rung of the economic scale.

The Project recognizes the stigmatization and isolation that happens to a family following the assassination of one of its members. The natural process of bereavement is disrupted and distorted and family disintegration often occurs. The Project aims to help families through the intense grieving stage and reintegrate them back into the wider community. Human rights training, trauma counselling and conflict management are integral parts of the Project.

Over the past ten years the Team in the Consolation Project, Salvador, Brazil, has gained many skills.  The Project reaches out to families who have had members assassinated.  These are usually young sons, either caught up in the drug traffic, or suspected by the police of drug involvement and summarily executed.  But we also have cases of domestic violence and just stray bullets as the local gangs are heavily armed and the police presence is minimal.

In listening to mothers pour out their grief, or struggle to come to terms with the finality of it all, the Team members have become skilled in Active Listening, a therapeutic approach with families which is sensitive, respectful and positive.  In pastoral terms it is recognising Christ´s presence in the other and just being with them as they go through the mourning process without advice-giving or judgement.