In recognition of their great social work in Santa Rosa, Argentina, the Sisters Adorers (Hermanas Adoratrices)  have received the honour of having a street named after them in the ARA San Juan neighbourhood.

Sisters Adorers street signage installation in La Pampa, Argentina

The initiative was sanctioned unanimously by the deliberative body of the Municipality and realized on 30 May 2023 with the installation of the signs.

The event was attended by local authorities, the current heads of the project, Ignacio López and Yamila Pérez, both lay people; and Sister Adriana Grenethier, representing the Congregation of the Sisters Adorers, Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament and Charity.

Project “Our Lady of the Eucharist” Santa Rosa La Pampa – Argentina

The Project “Our Lady of the Eucharist” Santa Rosa La Pampa – Argentina promotes young women and receives women in prostitution who wish to be trained in work and human formation workshops and takes in the children of the mothers in a nursery while they are studying.

In the same way, this initiative accompanies and orients women with other types of vulnerabilities through psychological, social and legal support, as well as providing food and clothing. In certain situations, women are referred to other related entities.

The project has the collaboration of instructors, trainers and volunteers in the workshops of hairdressing, industrial sewing, arts and crafts, baking, cooking and human-spiritual formation. In the same way, it receives its own contributions, from the Congregation and through agreements with state and private entities for the support and labour insertion of the trained women.

On the other hand, the training centre has a group of volunteers who cooperate in teaching, maintenance and organisation of the project’s activities. Their work is essential and some of them have accompanied the project from the very beginning.

The history of the project

The Project “Our Lady of the Eucharist” Santa Rosa was born in 1992 at the request of Mario de la Torre, permanent deacon and Salesian co-operator in the homes of Don Bosco and founder of the Foundation “Contributions to Humanity”. He himself requested the presence of the Congregation of the Adorers in Santa Rosa, as this charism would be of vital importance for this city, given the number of women exposed to danger on the streets due to prostitution.

The Adorers responded to this call and, after some time of experience, began their work and pastoral experience in a borrowed garage. Thus, with hard work, they began the social work of invitation and evangelisation of women.

As the years went by, this work was consolidated and grew through the incorporation of lay people and state and private aid. Numerous Adorers passed through this Project, enriching and updating it.

After 26 years, the General Government, in agreement with Sister Provincial, Gabriela Valot, and the contribution of the Superior and sisters of the Community, considered it advisable to close the community in Santa Rosa, but not the Project.

At this point, a process of discernment took place with the lay men and women who were accompanying it, in which the decision was taken to give continuity to the Project in the hands of the laity. In this way, a transition was made between the religious community and the laity, with the couple formed by José Ignacio López and Yamila Pérez taking charge of the Project.

“We have spent four years of dedication to this Pastoral, amidst uncertainties, readjustments and continuous learning, walking alongside women affected by various forms of slavery, especially prostitution, accompanying their process of growth and liberation.

Years of commitment to the charism, with the conviction that God wants us here and guarding the life of each woman we accompany, keeping alive the burning torch that Saint Micaela gave us through the Religious Community”, say José Ignacio and Yamila.

Both also underline how the Sisters Adorers “left their mark on these lands, both in their inhabitants and in their interlocutors, who today more than ever gratefully remember this beautiful Eucharistic-Liberating Charism, which today continues to be present in the hands of lay people who are trained and committed to the mission”.

The year 2022 marked the 30th anniversary of the presence of the Micaela’s Charism in Santa Rosa, La Pampa. In that year, assistance was provided to 87 women in situations of prostitution and 23 children in the nursery.

“Our desire and commitment is to continue to respond in fidelity to the charism transmitted by St. Maria Micaela. Accompanying and walking alongside the women who have been entrusted to us, always based on the pedagogy of Love and encouraged by their example of life and dedication”, declared José Ignacio and Yamila.