The third chapter, recorded in the city of Agua de Dios, is entitled "Children of Pain".
Agua de Dios was the second Salesian presence in Colombia. The city, which came into being as an area of isolation in the country for those affected by Hansen's disease – leprosy – at the end of the 19th century became a prison: it was accessed only through a bridge, called the "Bridge of Sighs": it was surrounded by barbed wire, there were guards, those who arrived there lost their citizenship, had their own currency and the State owned everything.
The Salesian missionaries arrived in Agua de Dios in 1891 with the firm intention of serving and accompanying the sick, as the Sisters of the Presentation did. Years later, the Salesian Blessed Luigi Variara founded the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, part of the Salesian Family, whose charism also includes service to leprosy patients.
Since 1961, Agua de Dios has ceased to be a city of pain transformed into a lazaretto and has become a city of joy and hope. It has a population of 11,000 people, over 650 of whom are currently living with the disease. There are two leprosariums for the sick, who are accompanied by the Salesians and the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts, but the Salesians also develop their educational charism in seven rural schools and in an institute for the baccalaureate.
The presence of the Salesian Family has remained faithful to the population of Agua de Dios since day one, accompanying, educating and caring for the hearts of the "children of pain", caused by the historical mistake of creating a city to stigmatize the population affected by leprosy, until they become "children of hope".
