Peace. Pax. Friede. Pace. Paix. Shalom. Salaam. Axé. Heiwa. Paz.

          All over the world, this is the word of the moment, the great challenge for the third millennium. A challenge that means, more than silenced guns, the building of a peace culture, starting with the child in its family and community environment and accomplished by means of joint efforts towards social inclusion.

          This is the work of Pastoral da Criança, an entity which - in 2002, achieves 19 years of uninterrupted work promoting health, preventing diseases, improving the quality of life, and stopping violence through building a peace culture in our daily life. It is a work carried out in 32,743 communities organized in poverty and misery areas, both in the city and the countryside, summing up to 3,555 towns all over Brazil. It is more than 153 thousand volunteers who assist 1,635,461 needy children under the age of 6 and 76,842 pregnant women, involving 1,135,969 families.

          In Brazil, despite the advances of the last decade, social differences are still a great obstacle. According to recent searches (1), the country has kept one of the largest gaps between the rich and the poor for the last 20 years when it comes to revenue distribution. Besides that, the gap between the rich and the poor is even larger if we compare the economic situation of the black and the spanish to the white people (2). This environment favors the generation of endless problems, such as violence - in its different forms.

          As the Pastoral da Criança acts exclusively in poverty and misery areas, it faces the everyday effects of social differences, such as unemployment, homeless and lack of food, alcoholism, drugs, families breaking apart. That is the reason why the Pastoral bases its actions in the recovery and strengthening of the social network. The local work of more than 130 thousand community leaders who work and act in their own neighborhood is essential to identify sources of difficulties in the relationship between families and the people in the community, as it also helps organizing these populations to participate in the decision making process about public policies affecting them.

          An ecumenical institution not linked to any political party, the Pastoral da Criança develops all its activities regardless its volunteers and the assisted families race, color, religious belief or political choice. Hence, it highlights the idea that we all are a single family, where the misery of one member affects the other and the victory of one is the conquer of many, generating the commitment and strengthening solidarity bonds.

          When praising the actions of each individual - volunteers and family members - changing their own reality and ensuring a quality life for the children from the communities where they live with their families, the Pastoral breaks the exclusion cycle which turns millions of Brazilians into passive players in their own history.

          The basic actions developed by the Pastoral da Criança for health, nutrition, citizenship, and community education generate and strengthen peace, as they promote mothers' care towards their children, the parent's towards their families, the community's towards its pregnant women and children, and also promotes in everyone the commitment to its rights and duties towards the change of the reality. The resulting human solidarity network - with defined goals and concrete action practices - strengthen the respect among people, the living together with the different, the sharing of dreams and ideals and hence, the peace.

Cherishing the seed

1 - "Food and Nutrition Security and the human right to food in Brazil", IPEA, March/2002. (volta)

2 - "Race inequalities in Brazil", Roberto Borges Martins/IPEA, 2002.(volta)