Father Fernand Vandenabeele, cicm, is a Belgian native who joined Missionhurst-CICM in 1956 and was ordained in 1961. Father Fernand was sent to Brazil in 1964 where he worked for forty years in the dioceses of Nova Iguaçu and Volta Redonda before returning to Belgium for a three-year assignment as Rector of the CICM Retirement House in Kessel-lo. In 2005 he returned to Brazil, and was assigned to the Holy Family parish in Nova Iguaçu where he remains today, as well as serving as chaplain for the General Hospital in Nova Iguaçu

"I'm going to take you home," I said as I met Teresinha, seated by the front door of the hospital. "And who told you that I wanted to go home?" she asked with a big smile. She then added: "Right now I'm staying here at the hospital entrance because it is the changing of the shift time. At this time there is always someone who arrives and does not have anyone to ask for directions. I see in an instant that they are looking for someone, and so I send on their way in the right direction. I do this while God lets me live." So, I sat down by her side.

Teresinha is 80 years old and, for two afternoons a week, she receives and directs hospital visitors in a small room below the stairs of the Nova Iguaçu General Hospital. She has been doing this for years and everyone knows her. Her husband suffered a stroke two years ago. His health situation was so critical that Teresinha had begun the preparations for his funeral, but he took a turn for the better and began to improve. Though he lost his ability to speak, he communicates with gestures and some grunts - that often scares those who do not know him. Before, he spoke a lot, and on the street his nickname was "Coca Cola." No one knows how he came by this nickname, and he himself does not know how to explain; he only gives a laugh and thus, probably no one will ever discover. But everyone knows that Coca Cola is in love with Teresinha, with whom he has lived for 49 years. Teresinha does not laugh at these conversations and dryly ends the history of Coca Cola. "His name is Antonio and I want everyone to call him by his name," she says.

Antonio is not a Brazilian, but Portuguese by birth. In 1954 Antonio came over from Viseu, Portugal in order to work with a cousin who had a clothes-dyeing shop in Rio de Janeiro. He delivered the clothes to their customers on a bicycle. That was how Teresinha met him. She was born in Barbacena (in the state of Minas Gerais), but lived in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. Teresinha liked the delivery boy; she even confessed to having clothes sent there to be dyed without any real need, rather just to see Antonio.

She came from a very religious, Catholic family. Teresinha had already become a catechist by the age of ten. She and Antonio Marques da Silva eventually married, and came to live in Nova Iguaçu, in the Baixada Fluminense. Their life together was not easy. Teresinha worked as a maid in Rio de Janeiro and, because of the distance, had to wake up at two o'clock in the morning in order to walk to the nearest train station, where she caught the train to Rio at four o'clock in the morning. She would not return home until eleven in the evening.

Antonio had an easier life: He easily delivered his dyed clothes and had time left over for gambling. Also, he was not above a love affair with the women he sought to please in all ways. But his passion for Teresinha overcame all of this. Only once did their marriage almost end - and that was because of a soccer game. In an international game between Brazil and Portugal, Brazil was losing 0 to 3. Antonio could not deny his Portuguese origins and cheered and shouted so much that Teresinha became very irritated. However, she confesses that she did not understand, and never understood, anything about soccer. But even so, up to this day she continues to affirm that Portugal was wrong and that, because the game was played on Brazilian soil, Portugal should have let Brazil win the match!

Their financial situation improved a little when Teresinha got Antonio to participate in the church, and he left behind the gambling and running around with other women. Also, Teresinha got a better job, working in the mansion of the then Brazilian President, Juscelino Kubitchek (president from 1956-1961). Teresinha was responsible for all of the ironing of the household. She proudly explained to me that she starched and ironed the shirts of the president and of his wife, Dona Sara. In the presidential mansion, there were many parties and banquets. On these particular days, Teresinha put on a white apron and went from the ironing board to waiting on the banquets.

She still remembers the day that she told her mistress, "Dona Sara, where I live there are hungry children, and a lot of people have not eaten meat in months." That was the beginning of an anti-hunger campaign that would last for decades: one that would eventually carry the name of "Betinho."

Teresinha and Antonio with one small neighborhood group
in the Campaign Against Hunger effort.

In those first days, Teresinha got permission to make good use of the leftover banquet foods. Every night following an event, when Teresinha took the train home from Rio, she brought with her heavy tins of leftover food. The neighborhood could hardly wait for her arrival, and even went to meet her at the train station to help carry the tins. On the other hand, when there was not a banquet at the presidential palace, the disappointment was great. "But I always managed to bring something," she says.

Teresinha was inspired, and over many years, began to work more deeply on the issue of hunger in her neighborhood. She would invite her friends and neighbors over on the weekends to reflect on their situation and to search for the means to conquer the misery and the hunger. She believed this was an important step toward winning dignity for people who are living in poverty. They ultimately created a neighborhood association and organized a popular movement to put pressure on government authorities. They adhered to the slogan: "People have to learn to demand their rights, without commotion."

It was during these encounters that, in 1992, she met Herbert José de Souza, known in Brazil and overseas as "Betinho." Betinho is one of Brazil's most popular and ardent champions of human rights, especially for the poor and hungry. He is commonly known for his life-long plights for democracy and against social injustice and poverty.

Betinho's childhood and teenage years were marked by the limits imposed by hemophilia and tuberculosis. Yet, he knew how to take advantage of the little that life still offered him. He transformed his physical fragility into a greatness of the human spirit. He sought out an intense lifestyle for himself and for others, especially for those excluded by society. His humor and sense of irony came together in the form of a strong indignation at even the smallest forms of injustice.

Betinho was a charismatic young leader and fighter. With the Brazilian coup-d'etat of 1964, he began to act in the resistance against the military dictatorship, directing organizations in favor of the democratic line, and combating the regime that was in power. In the beginning of the 70's, the dictatorship forced him into exile, living in Chile, Canada, and Mexico. He returned to Brazil in 1979. After directing and creating various movements in favor of democracy and social justice, in 1994 he started the campaign, "Christmas Without Hunger," which, in its first year, collected 600 tons of food products.

But Betinho did not stop there. Because he wanted to go a step further, "Christmas Without Hunger" became "Citizen Action Against Poverty and For Life." This initiative went beyond a social assistance movement: it would link together and work with other movements and with individuals and community initiatives in the entire country. He wagered on citizenship. He invested in the small social movements and in community groups and civilian committees of all types. The sense was that every small entity had a part to play and, combined in their action, they could achieve enormous results - and they did.

As written by Roberto Bissio, in an article entitled Betinho: "The Conscience of a Society": "Instead of resorting to the traditional search for those responsible and demanding others come up with a solution, Betinho went straight to the citizens with the parable of the hummingbird: The forest was in flames, and while all the other animals fled to save their skins, a hummingbird collected beakful after beakful of water from the river to pour on the fire. 'Do you really think you can put out the fire with your little beak?' asked the lion. 'I know I can't do it alone,' replied the little bird, 'but I'm doing my part.' The Citizen Action Against Poverty and For Life, commonly known as 'the hunger campaign', or also (without the authorisation of its creator) as 'Betinho's campaign,' called on each citizen to do his part, identifying the poor people in their neighbourhood and offering them help. Each one of the 32 million hungry people has a face and someone who knows him. There is no need to wait for permission nor instructions from anyone before helping them. In a few months, a country ... switched to campaigns in an enormous solidarity crusade. Some parish, neighbourhood, union or rotary groups went into the favelas (slum neighbourhoods) with trucks full of donations, and were surprised to find the beneficiaries had organized their own campaign groups to help those even poorer than themselves." (Third World Resurgence No. 92, April 1998)

Betinho's life was indeed plagued by health issues. Having to undergo numerous blood transfusions as a result of his hemophilia, the consequences of tainted blood first subjected him to HIV infection in 1984, which he lived with for fourteen years. He was one of the first Brazilians to publicly declare his HIV status and refer to it as a condition to live with, not a condemnation. Needless to say, he led campaigns for AIDS education and research along with his many other social justice pursuits. The next devastating health blow came in 1994: he had contracted Hepatitis C virus through yet another transfusion of contaminated blood. Though Betinho continued to work for the ideals of democracy and social justice, he ultimately succumbed to the Hepatitis C infection, which led to his death in August of 1997. He died at home as he had wanted.

Teresinha remembers: "I was always a friend of Betinho. When I knew of his campaign, I went to meet him. And I felt that we were thinking in the same way. Only that he knew how to explain it better than me. This campaign against hunger and the organization of the people… this is what we had begun all the way back when I worked in the mansion of President Juscelino and would bring the tins of leftovers for the people."

The couple had no children, but adopted a nephew named Marqinho. Teresinha lovelingly calls him naughty, saying he "seems to be like Antonio when he was young!"

With hundreds of community leaders, Teresinha feels and says, "Betinho did not die!" We are here to carry on. And Teresinha does continue. Daily she is in one of the communities or neighborhood associations, uniting the people and searching for solutions. She accompanies the local committees to the respective city or state authorities to voice their plight. Twice Teresinha was elected to represent the popular movements of the Baixada Fluminense (slum-like region outside Rio) and has been received in the capital city of Brasilia by the then president of Brazil, Itamar Franco (president from 1992 to 1995). "I took advantage to speak all that I had in my heart. I, who had even starched the shirts of one president, I was not intimidated by the meeting. But Betinho had changed some things in me: I no longer asked for leftovers for the poor of my neighborhood and of Brazil, but I instead insisted on social rights and citizenship in the name of thousands of people who I was there to represent. It was the Spirit of the Resurrected Jesus that aided me and gave me the words to say."

Her strong, faith-filled convictions punctuate her remarks: "It is Him that gives us the strength in the struggle. It is Him that wants life in abundance for all."

We were still seated at the entrance of the Nova Iguaçu General Hospital when evening began. I looked at my watch and was surprised to see that it was already 8 o'clock. Teresinha turned to me with a big smile and said, "And now, if you still want to take me home, I will gladly accept."

Fernand Vandenabeele, cicm
Nova Iguaçu, Brazil