Pedro Pablo Opeka was born on June 29, 1948 in San Martín, province of Buenos Aires, but his heart for more than 50 years beat Madagascar. Son of Slovenian refugees, he was always much more than an common man. Already as a father, in full mission, by force of faith, work and an unwavering vision, he managed to make thousands of disinherited abandon extreme misery to become protagonists of their own lives. His monumental work, Akamasoa, is today a lighthouse of humanity that dazzles the world.
Since childhood, Pedro learned the weight of responsibility. With just nine years he already worked as a mason with his father, who taught him the trade since childhood. At twelve, I was already able to lift and revoke walls. But his vocation of service would soon impose himself.
After pastoral experiences with native peoples in Argentina, he entered the Seminar of the Vicentinos parents, in Belén de Escobar at age 18. There he studied philosophy and theology in the Colegio Máximo de San Miguel, where he had as a professor no less than Jorge Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis. In exclusive talk with news, he recalls: “In 1968, from March to July, at the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology of San Miguel, Bergoglio taught me introduction to philosophy. There was my teacher. He was still not a priest and I left Argentina in August of that same year. Then I was out of Argentina, I lost him, until the day he assumes as a day, he invites me as a day. I found it again at Casa Santa Marta and there I said: ‘Holy Father, you were my teacher 50 and peak years ago.’
Crossing. Father Pedro left Argentina towards Madagascar on August 20, 1968. Until then an unknown and injured country, where he would write one of the most extraordinary stories of our time. “My departure was not a flight,” he admits, “was a human and spiritual adventure.” The greatest recognition of Father Pedro today is the construction of a city that has the name Akamasoa, which in Malgache means “good friends.” In 1989, he was an infected dump of the Andralanitra area, but there, in that hell of waste where thousands of families were looking for food with dogs and pigs to survive, forged his place in the world and which earned him the global recognition and praise. “Akamasoa is not a physical place, it is a state of spirit. It is serving the brother, the child, the old man. It is not to lock himself in itself or be insensitive to love and compassion,” says the priest who continues to live in Madagascar since 1976.
With the help of benefactors around the world, Akamasoa became a true city: 22 neighborhoods, five thousand houses, hospitals, pharmacies, schools of all levels, a university, cemeteries, sports fields, trades workshops and even a cathedral in a granite quarry excavated by hand, without a penny of state aid. “More than 21,000 children today go to school today and before almost all begged in the city and in the streets of the capital. And their parents who were previously in the dump, today work. We have created more than 3,000 jobs and each one at the end of the week receives help because they work for the community. Here tourists come to see our villages that today are clean, with beautiful houses and nobody asks for anything,” he says.
The heart of the community is its rules: the DINA, a series of norms of coexistence based on respect, work and solidarity.
Papal visit. On September 8, 2019, Akamasoa received a historic visit. Francisco, very close to Father Pedro, arrived in his papamobile, toured the region and blessed the city. Both spoke emotional speeches and were very close to their thoughts. “This was a place of suffering and exclusion,” said the father that remembered afternoon, “and today is an oasis of hope. Here, extreme poverty was eradicated thanks to faith, work, education, discipline and respect.” Francisco, deeply moved, acknowledged: “Poverty is not a fatality. Akamasoa demonstrates that, with faith and works, it is possible to move mountains.”
Pedro Opeka’s work has been recognized throughout the world. France granted him the Legion of Honor, Madagascar distinguished him with the Grand Cross of the National Order, Belgium honored him with an Honoris Causa doctorate, and He was nominated several times to the Nobel Peace Prizealthough he acknowledges receiving God’s blessing in every smile of the children of his Akamasoa.
As for the future, the father is excited: “Building one hundred more houses, schools, hospitals, drilling water wells, improving roads and continuing to plant thousands of trees. Every brick we put is a victory against hopelessness and a mini battle gained to the most extreme poverty.”
