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Interview with Mauricio de Andrade,

General Coordinator of the Citizen’s Action Against Hunger, Povertyand for Life, Brazil

By Dada Maheshananda

Mauricio, you’ve been with this campaign since its very beginning. Tell us alittle about yourself and how the movement began.

I was born in 1951 in the city of Recife in the Brazilian Northeast. My parents werePortuguese of the lower middle class. At the age of twenty I came to Sao Paulowhere I attended university in economics. Then I worked for the government in theareas of agricultural reform and the people’s access to food.In 1992 our country saw a gigantic mobilization against the corruption of PresidentFernando Collar. Betinho helped create a campaign called the Movement for Ethics inPolitics that mobilized hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, many of themstudents and that contributed to the final impeachment. The leadership of thismovement realized the importance for society to continue this energy. And so, witheach one contributing his or her ideas, we evolved in April 1993 the Citizen’s ActionAgainst Hunger, Poverty and for Life.There is a happiness when we take on something that unites everyone, which wasthe question of hunger. I think that the ability and the leadership that Betinho gaveto society contributed to the unification process, of businessman to unemployed, of leaders from different religions and different political parties. He brought to thecollective consciousness that it is unacceptable, it is a disgrace to have someonehungry in a country like Brazil. We have so much wealth, so much accumulation of riches, it is a national shame to have 32 million people living in poverty and sufferingbecause of the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and the flight of moneyoverseas.

You knew Betinho personally. What was it like to work alongside him?

Betinho had a quality that was fantastic in my opinion, because since my youth Ihave found it important to dream. He had the capacity to work with others whodreamed with him. I think this is fundamental, because one’s individual dream isselfish. When the people are not afraid to dream, they can realize much more. Thiswas the major mark of Betinho, that he dared to dream publicly.Though his dreams antagonized some people, his sweet manner allowed him tomaintain friendly relations with many of those who opposed his actions. Anothercharacteristic he had was to be flexible while maintaining his principles. The Citizen’sAction Campaign was not enough for him; in the last years he was constantlymobilizing new struggles to construct a country more just. Then there was hispersonal courage. Despite the AIDS and hemophilia that he contracted through bloodtransfusions, Betinho set an example of living for the people. He showed his personallife to the public, demonstrating a higher ethical standard for Brazil.

How has the campaign changed during these five years?

In 1993 and 1994 the campaign received 80 percent approval in the minds of thepublic according to an independent opinion poll. Then we called 1994 the Year of

Employment. It was a more difficult period, because to call the people to participatein creating jobs is not the same thing as to ask everyone to bring a kilo of food. Eventhen, we have maintained some basic programs, such as the annual drive,"Christmas Without Hunger", which was launched in 1993 and has grown each year.In December 1997, after Betinho’s death, we distributed more than one hundredthousand baskets of basic food stuffs to needy families.The composition of our members is another aspect that is changing. For example, inRio de Janeiro during its first year, ninety percent of the committees were composedof people from the middle class and upper middle class. Today 95 percent arerepresentatives of poor communities. The importance of this, which I think isfundamental, is that they themselves are becoming actors in this process of transformation.

Can you give examples of some specific committees and how they function?

In the Taquara slum of Jacarepagua in Rio de Janeiro a committee constructed fortystrong houses, each with 40 square meters. Forty families are now living there withdignity and gradually paying each month a total of US$4200. Another committee onthe outskirts of the city collectively organized the purchase of a tractor two years agowith our support that is used to plow all the land of the community. Manycommittees have cooperative tailoring shops and more than fifty committees aredeveloping projects to generate income and create jobs.I believe that the greatest returns are in the development of local leaders. Commonpeople, some of them illiterate, are today organizing in defense of women’s rights,counseling teenagers, organizing participatory budget planning, and working aspresidents of their committees. They are utilizing their voices for the empowermentof their communities.

My first time to meet Betinho and the campaign was in June 1993 when hestarted the Inter-Religious Movement of the Campaign Against Hunger.Catholic Archbishop Luciano Mendes de Almeida, then President of theNational Conference of Brazilian Bishops, was the first of many religiousleaders to sign the letter of support. Ananda Marga, the socio-spiritualorganization that I represent, also signed this letter and we started doingweekly feeding of street people in Rio, São Paulo and other Brazilian cities.Later we organized as regular committees of the campaign and we continueto participate until today. Are you still receiving the support of differentchurches and religions?

At the beginning the inter-religious movement gave concrete and practical support tovarious projects and proposals. But after 1994, some organized sectors went backfrom the collective and continued their fight against hunger in their own spaces,trying to preserve their own identity. Today there is no active participation by thetrade unions, political parties, business leaders or religious representatives, thoughmembers of each of these groups participate on a personal level.

What are the biggest problems that the campaign is encountering now?

It is the growth of poverty and misery. This is not a local situation, it happeningworld wide because of a global economy that excludes and marginalizes more andmore people. We have a Minister of Labor whose own son will not have a problemfinding employment, but who says that though the unemployment level has risenfrom 7.5 percent to 8.5 percent, this is natural increase. If this is natural, then it is