Brazil
ADRA Brazil
Serving the local population since 1984
At its core, ADRA Brazil emphasizes development in the areas of health, education, and economic opportunity. Through our partnerships, we work to eradicate social inequalities and the lack of access to basic human rights. Given the frequent and devastating natural disasters, we also focus on disaster relief and preparedness.
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Roberto’s Story
Brazil
Roberto’s Story
Brazil
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Roberto’s Story
As he lay in bed, delirious from drugs, Roberto felt himself slipping away. Crack cocaine had been consuming his thoughts for years and his body for months, and now it finally seemed to be taking his life.
When he was a teenager, skipping class and drinking beer with his friends, Roberto never would have predicted that drugs could one day ruin him. Everything had seemed fine, even as he transitioned into smoking marijuana and using cocaine.
He felt in control. He even married and started a family, but increasingly, his money and time were spent on drugs.
His mother began to suspect drug abuse, and she put Roberto in a rehabilitation center. He emerged a new man—until he discovered crack cocaine, a highly addictive and dangerous narcotic. His mother paid for a second treatment plan, then a third, and a fourth.
Nothing was working for Roberto, and he continued to feed his addiction, even as his body deteriorated. That night on the bed, as he felt himself fading, Roberto weighed 120 pounds.
“I thought I was going to die,” he said.
His mother decided to try one more treatment plan that she had heard about from a friend: an ADRA center named Pro Vida (“pro-life”). She loaded Roberto in her car and drove to the remote state of Bahia in Northeast Brazil.
Pro Vida is one of four ADRA projects in Brazil designed to promote recovery from addiction. Pro Vida alone has helped more than 800 people since 2001.
“I didn’t think it was going to work,” Roberto said. “I had already been to four different treatments, some of them among the best one can find.”
Pro Vida was different. It was more than just plans and processes, which had all failed him before. It was community, it was friendship, and it was spirituality. Never had Roberto received spiritual care like he did at Pro Vida.
The skilled and loving staff offered prayer and Bible lessons in addition to detox and lifestyle changes.
“Pro Vida saved my life,” he said. It’s a message that Roberto is now spreading all over Brazil, to children and adults alike. He is especially active at public schools in his native state, where he shares his experiences with students and urges them to avoid drugs.
Roberto has been reunited with his overjoyed wife and children, as well as his mother, who never stopped praying for him. He is using the lessons he learned from ADRA’s program to stay healthy and strong and provide a good example for his children.
Brazil Office
Paulo Lopes, Country Director
Asa Sul, Brazil
+556137011869
Additional Information
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Capacity Statement Overview
ADRA Brazil has spearheaded a project called AMA, Portuguese for “love.” The purpose of AMA is to support adolescent mothers in northern Brazil by helping them gain access to quality care before, during, and after birth. More than 500 young mothers are currently benefiting from the program, which offers counseling sessions and vocational training designed to prevent unintended pregnancies and help the young mothers earn an income. Through AMA, ADRA Brazil counsels schoolchildren to help them avoid diseases and unplanned pregnancies.
Our website further highlights the projects, programs, and people of ADRA Brazil -
Country Overview
Though considered a developed country, Brazil continues to face many challenges, both social and natural. Frequent droughts, floods, and landslides threaten the physical landscape, while poverty and difficult access to quality education and health care threaten economic and societal stability.