Lacy Bertoluci Bertoja:

“True charity is only possible when we love each other”

The founder of the Spiritist Society Esperanca (Hope), from the Brazilian city of Gramado, talks about the successful Chain
for Good, devised by the Spiritists of her city

	Lacy Bertoja, a trained accountant, has been a Spiritist for 52 years. She was born in the city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, where she was one of the founders of the Spiritist Society Esperanca, Portuguese for Hope. She is also the founder of a home for elderly women, aged over 60 (Maria de Nazare). The ho-
me faced a number of problems, which led Lacy to start a campaign – Chain for Good – to get 500 donors to contribute to keep the project going.

Why did you choose this name, Chain for Good?

It was based on the book, Pay it Forward, by Catherine Ryan Hide and its version for cinema. [NT: It was launched in Brazil as Corrente do Bem, which translates as Chain for Good]

What is the idea behind the film?

It is very clear: a good deed, a nice gesture, an act of love, they all generate a multiplying factor in social wellbeing. The film tells the story of a boy who creates a game in which each person has to return a favour it has received with a favour to three other people, and so on and so forth. His work was aimed at transforming the lives of people and, as a result, helping create a better world.

What did you do for your campaign?

We created two teasers a month before the event and put them on the social networks. For the event we set up a team with specific objectives, all of them volunteers. In two months, we sent out about 350 invitations for the event. Some 40 people took part in the event. A local television network like our idea and played a 30” commercial for a month, every other day. Some 150 people turned up at the event and we achieved our goal, of getting 500 committed donors. We will continue to work on the project, publicising it during the 8th Spiritist Congress of Rio Grande do Sul state later this year.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

True charity is only possible when we love each other. And that is what kept us together. We were all holding hands to keep that beautiful grandmothers’ home open. We are doing this for a beautiful 89-year-old lady, who fought her whole life to build this home and for the love of all the elderly who are not cared for by their families. We are all united by true charity, like Jesus taught us.