One of Fundação Esperança´s outreach programs is called the Quilombo Project.  Quilombo is the name of a community of people who are descendants of escaped African slaves from several hundred years ago.  Brazil has over a 1,000 Quilombos still in existence since the abolition of slavery in 1888.  The most famous and well organized community was Palmares, which you can read about here.

Historically, these communities have remained a bit isolated, surviving by subsistence farming and fishing.  Their living situation has always been tenuous since they never owned the land they occupied.  Various organizations work with Quilombo communities on land rights issues.

The Portuguese began using African slave labor in Brazil as early as 1560 when they realized that the indigenous populations had little interest in working on their sugar and cocoa plantations.  When they tried to use force individuals either died quickly from disease and being overworked, or slipped back into the forest where they were quite at home and adapt at survival.  Several million Africans were brought to Brazil as slaves (approximately 7x more than were taken to the United States).

Twenty seven Quilombos exist along the Trombetas River, a tributary of the Amazon River (about 24 hours by boat from Santarém).  Mineração Rio do Norte (MRN) is the largest producer of bauxite in Brazil and one of the largest producers in the world.  My understanding is that they expect to explore bauxite in this region for another 30 years.  MRN is also situated along the Trombetas River, and as part of its philanthropic endeavors to improve the quality of life in the surrounding region, provides funding to Fundação Esperança to charter a boat from Santarém every month in order to deliver health services to 3 of the Quilombos near MRN.  Without these services the individuals would need to travel 12-18 hours by boat to Oriximina, the closest city that has a public hospital.

The entire trip takes five full days, with health services being provided on 4 out of the 5 days.  Fundação Esperança (FE) monitors growth and development of children in the communities and gives nutritional supplements for children falling below the normal growth curve.  In each community they also have education sessions about hygiene, diarrhea and breastfeeding.  They provide chlorine for water sanitation and oral rehydration packets.

The nurses and or doctor provide pre-natal, gynecological, and general medical care.  Commonly seen problems are: anemia, parasites, malnutrition, malaria and hypertension.  They also see problems related to hepatitis, STD´s and some rare diseases including Hansen´s disease.

FE staff see approximately 400 patients each month.  Through the care, education and nutritional supplements (provided by Fundação Esperança), the diagnosis of malnutrition in children ages 0-5 has decreased from 39%, in 2000, to 6%, in 2009.

I had the pleasure of joining the team on the trip at the end of July (in an observational capacity) and got to see the tremendous work they accomplished in four long days of patient care.  Part of the Tapagem community (55 families) is shown below.