Maganews, Zilda Arns

The stunning legacy left by Zilda Arns

  

Life lessons

The stunning [1] legacy [2]  left by Zilda Arns

The founder and coordinator of Pastoral da Criança was killed in the Haiti earthquake [3]. Her work was fundamental to Brazil’s reducing infant mortality rates [4] over the last three decades

She looked delicate and she was softly spoken, but Zilda was a strong and courageous woman. She was 75 years old and had spent the last few decades working hard. On January 12^th she was in a church in Port-au-Prince, talking to a group of local religious leaders. Zilda wanted to introduce the Pastoral da Criança methodology to Haiti. But an earthquake completely destroyed the church and Brazil lost one of the greatest women in its history. A Brazilian soldier outside filmed the church in ruins. The only thing that remained intact was an image of Jesus Christ. It looked like a small miracle. Over the last three decades Zilda did some amazing work, inspired by the famous miracle of the feeding of the five thousand [5]. In 1983, with the backing of CNBB, Zilda founded Pastoral da Criança. She had developed an efficient method to help the poorest families. The work involved, among other things, feeding [6] children under six, hygiene, preventive healthcare, and complete help for poor pregnant women. Zilda did not feed the five thousand, but she did increase the number of volunteers over the years. Pastoral da Criança now has 260,000 volunteers and is working in about 4,000 Brazilian municipalities, helping 1.8 million children and 95,000 expectant [7] mothers. These volunteers have helped reducemalnutrition [8] and infant mortality. The efficient methodology used by Pastoral da Criança has saved thousands of lives over the last three decades and has been exported to 20 countries.

Worthy [9] of the Nobel Peace Prize

Zilda Arns Neumann was the sister of the Archbishop of São Paulo, Dom Evaristo Arns. She was born in 1934, in Forquilhinha, Santa Catarina State, and studied medicine, specializing in pediatrics and public health. She was married, had six children (two of whom have died) and was widowed [10] in 1978.  Over the years she coordinated Pastoral da Criança, Zilda won 18 international awards and was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In recent years  Zilda was also a coordinator of Pastoral da Pessoa Idosa.

Matéria publicada na edição de número 53 da Revista Maganews

Photo (Wilson Dias – ABr)

Voice – Aasita Muralikrishna

Vocabulary

1 stunning – impressionante

2 legacy – legado

3 earthquake – terremoto

4 rate – índice

5 miracle of the feeding of the five thousand - milagre da multiplicação dos pães e dos peixes para 5 mil pessoas

6 feeding – alimentar

7 expectant woman – mulher grávida (pregnant)

8 malnutrition – desnutrição

9 worthy – merecedor (a)

10 to be widowed – ficar viúva