Brother Jairo Godinho Guimaraes from Brasil, lawyer, professed his final vows in January 2018 and is working in JPIC (Justice and peace and Intefrity of creation) in the Amazon.
I am Jairo Godinho Guimarães from Brazil, a SVD Brother. Recently I professed my final vows and I was assigned in Brazil Central Province to collaborate with JPIC. Since one month I arrived to the SVD District, which comprises two states (Rondônia and Amazonas) located in the Amazonas.
Being a lawyer I am working on my profession. Now we are talking with the local communities to create a JPIC team to act in defense of Human Right, agrarian reform, and the environment. We seek to encourage the popular participation in the different municipal councils (Health, Education, Women, etc.) to create public policies focused on the best quality of life of the population, and also to encourage participation in unions, in in the sessions of the chamber of councilors, etc. Nevertheless, the main goal is become aware of our citizen rights.
To achieve all this we work with NGOs partners who are fighting for social justice. We are facing big difficulties, because the devastation of forest by large corporations is a reality. Another problem is the distance, because most of the communities are rural and are very far from each other. However, I found a very warm local people who accepted the JPIC Project and have proposed to walk with us.
