We are not going to Africa to get to know the place, to be tourists, but to encounter a people”, Flavia and Valter wrote.

She is Swiss, she studied International Relations in Geneve and had worked for a few months at Bukas Palad Tagaytay, in the Philippines. Valter is a Brazilian journalist who just finished his Masters Degree in 2012 at the Sophia University Institute in Loppiano, Italy. In 2005 he went as a volunteer to Indonesia, six months after the tsunami that ravaged Southeast Asia.

Inspite of living on opposite ends of the Atlantic Ocean, they met in 2004 and were married eight years later.

Now they are leaving their security, projects, jobs... They will be going to spend a few months together with the community of the Focolare in Man, in sub-Saharan Africa, 600 km. west of the capital of the Ivory Coast, Abidjan. “To leave everything behind is not easy – they wrote – but we feel that this experience of total detachment makes us more free to live every moment in profundity, without looking back”.

In Man they will work in the Little City of the Movement, in a center for computer science and in  a center that works towards waging a war against malnutrition in hundreds of children.

“The fact that we are going there as a couple is an aspect that we would like to underline – Flavia wrote. Many people say that marriage imprisons you, forcing you to live a life based on the search for material security. We want to take up the challenge and show that it is possible together to open ourselves to the others”.

“Meeting the African people has always been our dream – Valter added – but the many relationships that we have built has transformed our trip into an adventure that we would like to share with many of our friends. For them and for all the people who are interested to know more about the African continent, we had the idea to write a book of our experiences together with the photos to document them”.

“We would like everyone to participate in our adventure– concluded Flavia – and to offer the fruits of our experience: we believe  that the family is not only made by the bond of blood, but it contains all the relationships that are built together with the communities wherein we find ourselves”.

For those who would like to participate in this project they can make a donation and they will receive a “photo book” with their experience.

For more information:

https://www.facebook.com/juntosrumoaafrica.

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