Alois Würstle

Alois Würstle SDB (born February 25, 1938 in Mochenwangen , Ravensburg district ) is a German friar and missionary in Brazil .

Life

Raised in a family of electricians with fifteen children, his calling to be a missionary was awakened as a teenager. With a view to his future commitment, he was already training as a high-voltage electrician with the Salesians Don Boscos at the Aschau-Waldwinkel youth education center. At the age of 18 he went to the Novitiate of the Salesians of Don Bosco in the Ensdorf monastery .

Although the religious order wanted to keep him as a trainer in Aschau-Waldwinkel, his wish to go on a mission was fulfilled. Since the beginning of October 1957, Würstle worked for the Bororo and Xavante Indians in Campo Grande / Mato Grosso in southern Brazil. He worked as an electrician on many of the Salesians' new buildings, but also in agriculture.

In 1976 he came to Cuiabá in the Salesian parish of Santo Antonio . The main concern there was to supply the Indians with schools and hospitals. The main problem was the production of clean water and electricity, for which deep wells and waterworks had to be built in this area. He was also involved in road and bridge construction. To date he has been involved in the construction of over 200 wells, over 250 kilometers of roads and over 20 bridges. He often worked with his late brother Franz Würstle, who was also a Salesian of Don Bosco and a missionary.

Würstle is the inventor of the so-called rocking pump , which was recognized as a social technology by the Banco do Brasil and recognized as a non-profit. The children can pump water from the often deep well while rocking, so that they playfully become important helpers in the village community.

On June 18, 2009, Würstle received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon in Cuiabá for his work in Brazil .

Web links

• Biography on jugenddrittewelt.de