Meet CRS Brazil Staff Member Rinaldo Dario Da Silva
Rinaldo Dário da Silva (right) leads a team of partners to respond to devasting flood damage in Pernambuco state, Northeast Brazil
Rinaldo Dário da Silva has been with CRS Brazil since the beginning, as a member of the team who started up the country program in 1993 in response to a severe drought. During his more than twelve years on the team, Rinaldo has helped CRS grow in its emergency response expertise and evolve into an agency that tackles food security, land and water needs, HIV and AIDS, child labor, human trafficking, social exclusion of the poor and minorities.
A Rural Sociologist, Rinaldo has been instrumental in helping to lead CRS's response to devastating floods that affected more than 200,000 people in Northeastern Brazil in 2004 and 2005, the country's worst in fifty years. He worked with partners to assess the damage, identify people in need, monitor emergency housing, and distribute essential water filters, food and hygiene baskets.
"The farmers in the Semi-Arid region make their living amidst crippling drought, and all of a sudden they were hit by a deluge of rain and devastating floods. The floods destroyed their fields, animals, plants, infrastructure," Rinaldo explains. "The people there don't have much of a voice to influence local and state resources to respond adequately to the crisis. Therefore, CRS and its partners have been playing a critical role in getting emergency aid to those affected and rebuilding infrastructure in the devastated region. We're helping these hard-working people get their lives back on track."
As the immediate relief needs subside, Rinaldo and partners are carrying out the long-term effort to prepare for future disasters. This is done by training people to advocate for their rights on a public policy level as well as building infrastructure like cement, dams, and cisterns to mitigate future rain damage.
Rinaldo also works to promote social justice for minorities. "Racism is very subtle in Brazil; people close their eyes to it," he explains. "But the reality is that Afro-descendants have less education, the most poverty, higher mortality rates and less income than whites. Their chances of getting to university are very low. Simply put, the white population has advantages the black and indigenous populations do not have." CRS, along with partner organization Djumbay, is helping to change this reality through the Affirmative Action for Brazilian Afro-Descendants project, which promotes ethnic, racial and gender awareness and affirmative action policies to reduce prejudice and discrimination.
Rinaldo is inspired by the passion of ordinary Brazilians to create a better future. "Brazilian civil society is very creative, very active, and has a strong will to create positive change in the country," he says. "Their dedication to working together to improve their lives is an inspiration, and it guides my work everyday with CRS."
