AVINA

For years, Peter Cleaves was the motor of the Latin American program of the University of Texas.  Then he went to Switzerland and returned to Austin as Executive Director of the AVINA Fiundation. I posted an account of the 2002 annual report of the foundation, and now Peter has sent me the handsome 2003 report. In the US. successful businessmen like Carnegie have end endowed foundations, or universities like Stanford.  Unfortunately such generosity is rare in Europe and Latin America. AVINA is young; it was inspired by the  1992 Rio Earth Summit.  Incidentally, Senator Heinz attended that summit, accompanied as an interpreter by Teresa, who became his wife and after his death married John Kerry. AVINA was founded ten years ago by Stephan Schmidheiny, who presumably met Teresa Heinz at the summit, which had consequences we did not suspect at the time. The Latin American companies created by  Schmidheiny formed the GrupoNueva. He donated all its stock to the VIVA Trust, which funds AVINA, for a total of $1.1 billion.  He has turned over the presidency to Brizio Biondi-Morra, who sounds like a Brazilian he met at the Earth Summit.  Schmidheiny  also founded the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the FUNDES Foundation, which works with more than 40,000 small businesses. Schmidheiny must be a Catholic (his name sounds Hungarian), since AVINA works with the Jesuit educational foundation Fe y Alegría, with its 31,000 teachers and 29 Jesuit universities. There is no mention of the Opus Dei, a modern organization which competes with the Jesuits. I am glad that faith brings alegría, but should we translate the word as happiness or joy, which the Church prefers? Among the photographs are two large and beautiful ones of church interiors. One, presumably in Brazil, shows a string orchestra and choir before a baroque altar. Psalm  98 says " With trumpets and sound of cornets, make a joyful noise before the Lord". The string instruments in the picture are much later Italian developments; they go well with the baroque altar.

In view of its origins, it would seem natural that AVINA is strongly represented in Brazil, where it has six offices (Brasília,, Curitiba, Manaus, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador),  What is its attitude toward liberation theology, which has its roots in Brazil?.  What is the attitude of the Jesuits, who work closely with AVINA, toward liberation theology? AVINA has  four offices in Argentina (two in Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Patagonia), three in Costa Rica (All in San José) two in Chile (Chillán, Santiago) and Spain (Barcelona and Mallorca), and one in  Bolivia (Santa Cruz), Panama City, Paraguay,, Peru, Portugal, and Uruguay. AVINA is headquartered in Hurden, Sitzerland, which must be a small place or a suburb, since I cannot locate it; presumably the founder lives there.  It is registered in Panama, as many corporations are. Otherwise Mesoamerica is represented only by Costa Rica. The University of Texas is known as an important center of Mexican studies, so it is odd that AVINA is not active there. Perhaps it was not made welcome, perhaps  Schmidheiny had no activities there.

I am happy to post this information about AVINA, an important organization little known in the US. It is clearly doing important work in bringing hope and encouragement to people who deserve a better life. The beneficial role of the Jesuits is also interesting, since they have been the target of so much abuse from the secular left. That seems to have died down, perhaps in recognition of the Jesuits' good deeds.  I am as usual confused. I do not understand the syntax of GrupoNueva, In do not even know what the acronym AVINA stands for, The report includes statements from different countries. One describes a US based organization which works with AVINA, named Ashoka,  whatever that means. One of its first fellows was Gloria de Souza, an Indian teacher, despite her name. I guess she came from Goa, but do you wonder that I am bewildered?  I would be glad to post any corrections or explanations by Peter, on the condition that he does not use incomprehensible words or acronyms which would baffle me even more.

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