Praia, Cape Verde

Praia, the capital and largest city of Cape Verde, is located on the southern coast of Santiago Island, a few hundred kilometers to the west coast of Africa in the North Atlantic Ocean. While Praia has a rich history as a business port and tourist attraction, approximately one-third of the city’s population live below the poverty line.

Meet Oliver Santiago (pronounced Olli -Vaer), who grew up in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Praia. 

When asked about her childhood, Oliver said, “My community had a lot of structural problems, there was no water in the houses and the water wasn’t pure and clean to drink. The streets weren’t paved, there wasn’t a good space for the children to play, they played in the street and there was a lot of dirt and many children had various skin diseases because of this.

Electricity was scare, and there were many power outages, not just in the neighborhood but throughout the country. The neighborhood didn’t have much infrastructure or basic sanitation, but the neighbors were very close and helped each other out. Several times when my mother worked and came home late, the neighbors took care of us until she arrived.”

Even though her family lived in poverty, Oliver has wonderful memories of playing games with her sisters using toys made of wood left over from her father’s workshop. Along with the closeness of her family, they enjoyed their favorite foods during the Christmas season.

When Oliver was 11 years old a friend of her mother’s invited her to church. Upon hearing the Gospel, Oliver understood that she was a sinner who needed Jesus. She gave her life to Jesus and has been walking with Him ever since.

In 2018, she was introduced to Community Health Evangelism (CHE), through MAI Missionary Lia Veiga at her church. After teaching the basics of CHE, Lia suggested that she complete a MAI CHE internship in Ghana.

She enjoyed the internship very much and said, “It was wonderful, I was able to learn more about CHE, and I learned many new tools to be able to help my people better. The internship changed the way I look at people, not just to win them to Christ, but to look at them holistically.”

Following the internship, Oliver felt God reaffirm a missionary calling on her life. “I prayed that God would use me as His instrument and transform people’s lives. During the internship I lost all my fear, and surrendered to the call of God on my life and trusted completely that God would bear me up. When I disciple someone, I try to implement CHE in their life, and that every area of CHE (physical, emotional, spiritual, and social) is attended to and provided for. CHE is not just a spiritual ministry, but a holistic ministry.”

GIVE TODAY

Oliver has witnessed the impact of CHE on the transformation of her Praia City community. “CHE has helped empower our women with the ability to support ourselves and our families and help reduce poverty. CHE has brought the knowledge of God and people into better relationships with each other. CHE has helped us to evangelize children in a different way, so that they have a fear of God.”

Oliver was happy with the progress of the CHE program in her community, but she had a dream to build a community library that would make a difference in the lives of both the children and adults. This dream became a reality when Oliver stepped out in faith to do what seemed impossible.

“It all happened in June of 2023 when I ran a small summer camp program for the children and teenagers in the community, and we decided to go and visit the President of the Republic. I sent a letter to the communications department at the presidency, requesting a visit with the children.

To our surprise, they called me a few weeks later to say that the request had been accepted. We made the visit that felt like a dream! We visited the entire presidential palace and at the end of the visit the President of our country received us and talked to the children. They asked him questions, and at the end of the visit we gave him a Bible and a box of letters from the children. In the letters, each child drew a picture and wrote something personal to the President. To our surprise, he read the letters in front of the children and called each one by name, and in one of the letters a child asked him to help the CHE project because they were very blessed by the project. He said he would help. During this visit, I saw that the President was very touched by the children’s lives.

After six months, one of the President’s advisors called, asking if she could come and see the CHE community and the project. She then came to the project and asked what the needs of the project were. I shared with her the vision of the library for the community, which was a need for everyone in the community. A few days later they called and said that the president was coming to see the project and would also help us open a library!