Beth Myriam Salvador –Serving the Poor from 2006-2024

Since 2006, Casa de Maria in Salvador has been operating in Pirajá, under the coordination of Sônia Maria M. Martins and the local True Life in God group. Sônia writes about their accomplished work during all these years. 

Within the course of 20 years, we donated food parcels to poor families; provided soup and bread, medicine, clothes, shoes, and visited the sick and elderly. We helped to renovate and rebuild some houses that were in poor condition; we held masses and celebrations on special feast days, such as Mother’s Day and Children’s Day. During Holy Week we  would distribute fish and rice to families in need. We held catechism classes for children, and prayer groups for young people and adults. In 2024, we began running adult literacy classes. 

Our food donation activities at Beth Myriam continued until Holy Week 2024, at which over 70 kilos of fish and 70 kilos of rice were donated to registered families. Our on-site evangelization and educational activities continued until December 2024, culminating in the closing ceremony for the adult literacy course. The contributions for our outreach came from True Life in God Brazil, and from the donations offered by the local Catholic community from the parish where the “Group of the Sacred Hearts of True Life in God” was active. 

Upon Sônia M. Martins’s move to another location far away, there have been no candidates to take over Beth Myriam. The Casa de Maria in Salvador is currently closed and may be sold, with the proceeds from the sale to be directed to the other Beth Myriams in Brazil.

“Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome;” Matthew 25:34-35

Two girls from the Beth Myriam

                           Sonia feeding the poor families

Sonia and the group delivering food packs from the car