Interview with Mauricio de Andrade,

General Coordinator of the Citizen’s Action Against Hunger, Poverty

and for Life, Brazil

By Dada Maheshananda

Mauricio, you’ve been with this campaign since its very beginning. Tell us a
little about yourself and how the movement began.
I was born in 1951 in the city of Recife in the Brazilian Northeast. My parents were
Portuguese of the lower middle class. At the age of twenty I came to Sao Paulo
where I attended university in economics. Then I worked for the government in the
areas of agricultural reform and the people’s access to food.

In 1992 our country saw a gigantic mobilization against the corruption of President
Fernando Collar. Betinho helped create a campaign called the Movement for Ethics in
Politics that mobilized hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, many of them
students and that contributed to the final impeachment. The leadership of this
movement realized the importance for society to continue this energy. And so, with
each one contributing his or her ideas, we evolved in April 1993 the Citizen’s Action
Against Hunger, Poverty and for Life.

There is a happiness when we take on something that unites everyone, which was
the question of hunger. I think that the ability and the leadership that Betinho gave
to society contributed to the unification process, of businessman to unemployed, of
leaders from different religions and different political parties. He brought to the
collective consciousness that it is unacceptable, it is a disgrace to have someone
hungry 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 suffering
because of the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and the flight of money
overseas.

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 I
have found it important to dream. He had the capacity to work with others who
dreamed with him. I think this is fundamental, because one’s individual dream is
selfish. When the people are not afraid to dream, they can realize much more. This
was the major mark of Betinho, that he dared to dream publicly.

Though his dreams antagonized some people, his sweet manner allowed him to
maintain friendly relations with many of those who opposed his actions. Another
characteristic he had was to be flexible while maintaining his principles. The Citizen’s
Action Campaign was not enough for him; in the last years he was constantly
mobilizing new struggles to construct a country more just. Then there was his
personal courage. Despite the AIDS and hemophilia that he contracted through blood
transfusions, Betinho set an example of living for the people. He showed his personal
life 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 the
public 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 participate
in creating jobs is not the same thing as to ask everyone to bring a kilo of food. Even
then, 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 hundred
thousand baskets of basic food stuffs to needy families.

The composition of our members is another aspect that is changing. For example, in
Rio de Janeiro during its first year, ninety percent of the committees were composed
of people from the middle class and upper middle class. Today 95 percent are
representatives of poor communities. The importance of this, which I think is
fundamental, 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 forty
strong houses, each with 40 square meters. Forty families are now living there with
dignity and gradually paying each month a total of US$4200. Another committee on
the outskirts of the city collectively organized the purchase of a tractor two years ago
with our support that is used to plow all the land of the community. Many
committees have cooperative tailoring shops and more than fifty committees are
developing projects to generate income and create jobs.

I believe that the greatest returns are in the development of local leaders. Common
people, some of them illiterate, are today organizing in defense of women’s rights,
counseling teenagers, organizing participatory budget planning, and working as
presidents of their committees. They are utilizing their voices for the empowerment
of their communities.

My first time to meet Betinho and the campaign was in June 1993 when he
started the Inter-Religious Movement of the Campaign Against Hunger.
Catholic Archbishop Luciano Mendes de Almeida, then President of the
National Conference of Brazilian Bishops, was the first of many religious
leaders to sign the letter of support. Ananda Marga, the socio-spiritual
organization that I represent, also signed this letter and we started doing
weekly feeding of street people in Rio, São Paulo and other Brazilian cities.
Later we organized as regular committees of the campaign and we continue
to participate until today. Are you still receiving the support of different
churches and religions?
At the beginning the inter-religious movement gave concrete and practical support to
various projects and proposals. But after 1994, some organized sectors went back
from 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 the
trade unions, political parties, business leaders or religious representatives, though
members 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 happening
world wide because of a global economy that excludes and marginalizes more and
more people. We have a Minister of Labor whose own son will not have a problem
finding employment, but who says that though the unemployment level has risen
from 7.5 percent to 8.5 percent, this is natural increase. If this is natural, then it is
natural that people are dying of hunger. It is natural that more people are excluded,
living without hope. It is natural people are dying of dengue fever, tuberculosis,
leprosy and other preventable diseases, and that there are more people forced to live
on our streets.

Today these things are considered natural because I can pay to live in an apartment
building that never allows a poor person to enter. When I was a boy, we knew the
names of those people who begged alms and we knew what day and what hour they
would come to our house. Today if you bump a beggar and he or she falls on the
street, you don’t even say sorry. The problem is a decrease in the solidarity of our
people, so that I feel today we do not have a Christian society, we have a society of
money. The money is invested to satisfy ourselves, not as a responsibility to help
others.

How would you respond to the criticism that the Citizen’s Action is not
changing the structure of poverty and inequality?
I would reply, I’m doing my part, you do yours.

What is your vision of an ideal Brazil, of a Brazil with a better future?

It is fundamental that people believe that it is possible to try and they don’t stop
trying. That they not be afraid to do things differently. The question of perspective in
Brazil is that the people must increase opportunities and offer an invitation to
citizenship and the exercise of citizenship. The people must construct a future that is
a little different. Now for this it is fundamental that everyone continues to dare, and
that everyone continues to do his or her part.

Contact:
Citizen’s Action Against Hunger, Poverty and for Life
Av. Marechal Floriano, 114 - 14 andar – Centro
Rio de Janeiro - RJ CEP: 20080-002, Brazil
Tel. (021) 276-4316, Fax. (021) 276-4560
Email: mauricio.de.andrade@infolink.com.br

Dada Maheshananda is a monk of Ananda Marga and a teacher of yoga and

meditation. Email: amurt@ax.apc.org

Copyright Proutist Universal 1999