Columban Missionary Fr Tim Mulroy writes about a ten-week workshop at the Columban Mission Centre in Lima equipping migrant women with baking and cooking skills to help them find work.
Could it be said that the reign of God is like a platter of various kinds of pastries which a group of women from different countries have learned to create together? Among a group of seventeen women who had come to live in the city of Lima, several were migrants from Ecuador, while others had arrived from Venezuela.
They also included Peruvians from remote towns or villages who had travelled to the capital city in search of a better life for themselves and their families. One was a Peruvian who, after spending eight years in Mexico, now felt like a foreigner back in her home country.
Almost all of them felt overwhelmed by the frantic pace of city life, and though they were surrounded by over 11 million people, they frequently felt isolated and lonely without the support of their extended family, neighbours and friends. Since more than one quarter of Lima’s population live in poverty, it is a major challenge for new arrivals to find suitable accommodation and regular employment.
Many of the seventeen women struggled to find work due to their low level of formal education, or they were unable to take on certain kinds of jobs due to family commitments.
They came together at the Columban Mission Centre in Lima to attend a series of ten workshops on making pastries, in the hope of equipping themselves to start a small business in their own home, which would enable them to provide additional financial support for their families.
“However, the pastry-making workshops were intended not just to enable those seventeen women to support their families, but also to grow as persons in their new surroundings” Marisol Rojas, the Coordinator of the Columban Mission Centre, emphasised.
Elaborating on this broader vision, she explained, “The sessions, which took place twice a week, were led by Elena, an experienced confectioner, so the participants learned the craft of pastry-making and explored their own creativity by experimenting with new recipes.
At the same time, they grew in trust and in friendship with one another. Over the course of ten weeks, they gradually found the courage to talk with one another about their personal struggles in this huge city, developed the ability to laugh about their mistakes around the oven, and discovered the confidence to share about their dreams for themselves and their families.
Moreover, as they listened to one another, they affirmed each other’s courage and resilience. And the gratitude they felt for the ongoing nurturing of their skills and spirits frequently found expression in their spontaneous prayers at the beginning of each session.”
Reflecting on his experience of supporting Marisol Rojas and accompanying another group of women who had participated in a similar workshop series at the Columban Mission Centre some months previously, Fr Dylan Tabaco, a Columban missionary from the Philippines said, “Creating and baking, learning and relating together enabled the women from various backgrounds to understand and respect each other. Since all of them had experienced the prejudice and pain of being an outsider, they understood the importance of stretching one’s mind and heart in order to go beyond superficial perceptions and come to know one another at a deeper level.”
“The pastry-making workshops provided them with opportunities to make new friends, gave them confidence and skills to explore new ways to support their families; and deepened their faith in God who accompanies them through all the ups and downs of life.”
While none of the women who have participated in the pastry-making workshops envisage their future as ‘life on a platter,’ all of them have discovered how a platter of delicious pastries nurtures their taste buds, their spirits and their dreams.
Fr Tim Mulroy from Co Mayo was ordained in 1995. He was Regional Director in the US between 2012-2018 and Columban Superior General between 2018-2024. He is now based in Britain.
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