Since their arrival in Brazil in 2020, the Rivero family has grown with the birth of more children. The older ones are integrated into the school system. (Giovanni Culmone/Global Solidarity Fund)
By Felipe Herrera-Espaliat, Special Correspondent in Porto Alegre, Brazil
Mar 26 2024
The extensive networking efforts carried out by Catholic institutions with civil society organizations and the Brazilian state ensure that their contributions and opinions are highly valued when addressing the challenges posed by the arrival of migrants.
The Church’s vast experience concerning the situation of migrants across the world is an excellent resource when dealing with the current migration crisis. This is true in Brazil, where various ecclesiastical bodies offer a solid contribution to the state in formulating public policies that address multiple challenges.
In the municipality of Porto Alegre, in the south of the country, a new migration law was approved last July, benefiting more than 35,000 foreigners living in the city, guaranteeing, among other rights, easier access to healthcare and education. This new legislation was promoted by councilor Roberto Robaina. In his view, “the most important thing is to combat racism and nurture a culture of global fraternity because people came here due to the terrible conditions in their countries, immense social and political crises.”
But in drafting this law, the voices of members of the Porto Alegre City Council were not the only ones to be heard; the valuable contribution of the Permanent Forum on Human Mobility, an entity that coordinates various pro-migrant institutions, was also sought. The Scalabrinian nun, Claudete Rissini, actively participated in the process, emphasizing the need to work together to sensitize the public sector so that these people are recognized as rights-holders. “As Church, we still feel some resistance because there are people who do not want to pay attention or offer a humanized context to migrants,” says Sister Claudete.
The contribution of intercultural mediators
An important outcome of this law was the allocation of funds for the program for intercultural mediators working in the healthcare sector. This team of five individuals from different linguistic backgrounds facilitates migrants’ access to all healthcare services, acting as intermediaries between patients and doctors. They do this not only through language translation but also by decoding the entire medical assistance process to make it truly understandable.
“There has been significant awareness-raising effort on the part healthcare workers to combat xenophobia and racism, to make it clear that no person is illegal and that everyone, whether a citizen or a foreigner, has the right to access healthcare,” explains Rita Buttes, who is in charge at the Municipality of migrant health.
Amongst the regular beneficiaries of this service are the over forty members of the Rivero family. They are a clan from the Warao tribe in Venezuela, who settled in the Camaquã neighborhood of Porto Alegre in 2020 after leaving their home in Barrancas, a town in the state of Monagas. There, the prices of essential goods skyrocketed, and they struggled to find food and medicine. “We indigenous people go together, we don’t separate. We eat and dance together,” says Rodolfo Rivero, explaining why the entire clan moved 4,700 kilometers to settle in Brazil, where they found much more acceptable living conditions.
