{"id":201125,"date":"2018-09-19T07:00:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T10:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=201125"},"modified":"2018-09-20T15:18:33","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T18:18:33","slug":"a-routine-of-generosity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/a-routine-of-generosity\/","title":{"rendered":"A routine of generosity"},"content":{"rendered":"

My grandparents were from Syria and Lebanon and came to Brazil at the time of the First World War. My grandfather from my dad\u2019s side, Camasmie, came from Homs, Syria, and my grandfather from my mom\u2019s side, came from Zahl\u00e9, Lebanon. My grandfather Badra went to Santa Cruz das Palmeiras, 253 km from S\u00e3o Paulo, sold goods door to door, opened a store, became a farmer. My grandfather Camasmie was a teacher, but since he couldn\u2019t speak Portuguese when he arrived in Brazil, he also went selling goods door to door. Later, he opened a small-articles store at March 25th<\/sup> Street.<\/p>\n

My father, Dem\u00e9trio Taufik Camasmie, also made a career in retail. He met my mother, who\u2019s always been very pretty, and was enchanted. They had four children, me, two sisters and a brother. I was born in 1938, in S\u00e3o Paulo, shortly before the Second World War. My father\u2019s family spoke a lot of Arabic at home, but due to the war they didn\u2019t want to pass it along to the children. For this reason, I don\u2019t speak Arabic. But the Arab cuisine is very much present in our home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Elizabeth Zogbi is M\u00e3o Branca’s president<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My mom was a Catholic from the Melkite Church (Melkite Greek Catholic Church), but she used to attend the Catholic Church (Roman Catholic Church). I studied in a Catholic school, the Sacr\u00e9-Coeur de Marie. Later, I studied Pedagogy, with a specialization in Psychology at the Sedes Sapientiae Institute. I only concluded my studies when my children were raised. I returned to school and finished my course at the Catholic Pontifical University (PUC). I majored in Pedagogy with a focus on School Management, which gave me a strong basis for my work at M\u00e3o Branca.<\/p>\n

M\u00e3o Branca was founded at the social hall of the Antiochian Orthodox Church in S\u00e3o Paulo. A group of women gathered and distributed food, medicine and cared for the less fortunate elderly. Until one day an elderly man didn\u2019t show up for the food. They went to visit him and he was dead. The beginning of M\u00e3o Branca was like that, in 1912. In the 1940s, a property of ten thousand square meters in Santo Amaro was bought and the headquarters was built with donations from the local community where it\u2019s located today. All the pavilions were donated and carry the name of the donor families.<\/p>\n

At this time, at 42 years old, I began to work as a volunteer at M\u00e3o Branca. The group that joined in with me changed the overall features of the organization a great deal. We formed a good and tight working group. The elderly were always very well-cared for at M\u00e3o Branca, but something was missing!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Elizabeth with M\u00e3o Branca’s leadership<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My mom was Catholic from the Melkite Church (Melkite Greek Catholic Church), but she used to attend the Catholic Church (Roman Catholic Church). I studied in a Catholic school, the Sacr\u00e9-Coeur de Marie. Later, I studied Pedagogy, with a specialization in Psychology at the Sedes Sapientiae Institute. I only concluded my studies when my children were raised. I returned to school and finished my course at the Catholic Pontifical University (PUC). I majored in Pedagogy with a focus on School Management, which gave me a strong basis for my work at M\u00e3o Branca.<\/p>\n

M\u00e3o Branca was founded at the social hall of the Antiochian Orthodox Church in S\u00e3o Paulo. A group of women gathered and distributed food, medicine and cared for the less fortunate elderly. Until one day an elderly man didn\u2019t show up for the food. They went to visit him and he was dead. The beginning of M\u00e3o Branca was like that, in 1912. In the 1940s, a property of ten thousand square meters in Santo Amaro was bought and the headquarters was built with donations from the local community where it\u2019s located today. All the pavilions were donated and carry the name of the donor families.<\/p>\n

At this time, at 42 years old, I began to work as a volunteer at M\u00e3o Branca. The group that joined in with me changed the overall features of the organization a great deal. We formed a good and tight working group. The elderly were always very well-cared for at M\u00e3o Branca, but something was missing!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
M\u00e3o Branca was founded in 1912<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today, the centers are an arm of M\u00e3o Branca. The Cap\u00e3o Redondo center was closed, but we have other four centers: Jardim \u00c2ngela, M\u2019Boi Mirim, Campo LImpo and Br\u00e1s, all operating inside Catholic churches. Many people that were dispirited at home began to live again with this moment of leisure. Everyone needs entertainment. We have over 400 elderly people in these centers in the suburbs. We also visit the elderly that are confined to their bed, bringing medicine and whatever they need.<\/p>\n

At M\u00e3o Branca we have the ILPI (Long-term Institution), which is the services offered to the residents, those living at M\u00e3o Branca. Two years ago, we also created the Day Center (NCI), in which the elderly spend their days at M\u00e3o Branca and go home to sleep with the family. And we have these living centers that offer leisure time, dancing, physical activity, handmade of costume jewelry and other activities.<\/p>\n

We have had great donors, all of the pavilions at headquarters, in Santo Amaro, were built with donations, but today it\u2019s getting harder and harder. There isn\u2019t in Brazil a donation culture, especially to the elderly, it\u2019s hard to make people and companies aware of how important their donations are. Old age is very hard. I say this from experience, our body deteriorates. We need a lot of resources, since living expenses almost doubles when one gets old.<\/p>\n

M\u00e3o Branca welcomes everyone with excellence, we have doctors, nurses, nursing assistant, caregivers, nutritionists, physical therapist, occupational therapist, all types of professionals needed.<\/p>\n

If I know the Arab countries? Yes, I went to Egypt with my husband, since I had studied Egyptian history and really wanted to know it personally. Later, we went to Damascus and Homs, in Syria, and to Zahl\u00e9, Beirut, and the city of my husband\u2019s parents, in Lebanon. It was emotional to get to know the place in which my grandparents were born. What have I inherited from the Arabs? Tough question, I don\u2019t know exactly (\u2026) but I think it was the generosity.<\/p>\n

Translated by S\u00e9rgio Kakitani<\/strong><\/p>\n

S\u00e9rgio Tomisaki\/ANBA<\/div>\n
S\u00e9rgio Tomisaki\/ANBA<\/div>\n
S\u00e9rgio Tomisaki\/ANBA<\/div>\n
S\u00e9rgio Tomisaki\/ANBA<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of Syrian and Lebanese origins, the pedagogue Elizabeth Camasmie Zogbi has dedicated most of her life to M\u00e3o Branca, a charity organization that assists the elderly and was founded by women of Arab origins. She and group of volunteers have brought leisure in the life of the elderly and have created centers in S\u00e3o Paulo districts. Read more of what Elizabeth told ANBA about her personal journey and her work at M\u00e3o Branca.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1455,"featured_media":201097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3066],"tags":[5036,5047,5048,5034,16007,2267,5037,5049,5035],"class_list":{"0":"post-201125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-beth-zogbi","9":"tag-charity","10":"tag-elderly","11":"tag-elizabeth-zogbi","12":"tag-imigracao-en-2","13":"tag-immigration","14":"tag-mao-branca","15":"tag-social-work","16":"tag-zogbi"},"wps_subtitle":"Of Syrian and Lebanese origins, the pedagogue Elizabeth Camasmie Zogbi has dedicated most of her life to M\u00e3o Branca, a charity organization that assists the elderly and was founded by women of Arab origins. She and group of volunteers have brought leisure in the life of the elderly and have created centers in S\u00e3o Paulo districts. Read more of what Elizabeth told ANBA about her personal journey and her work at M\u00e3o Branca. ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1455"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}