Profiles of our Lay Missionaries

Andrea Grainger - Brazil

Andrea writes

"I came to work with street children in Rio in October 2006 after years
of working as a marketing & communications manager in a variety of
industries. I was happy that my CV was sufficient to permit me have a
‘year out’ from the world of business to work with babies, children
and teenagers while living in a country with as much crazy devotion to
soccer as myself. That was four years ago and I fell deeply in love
with a city that stuns me with its beauty and ugliness.

I have been here so long that I have gradually gotten used to the
inexplicable violence and lack of justice or human rights that I deal
with on a daily basis. I know why I stay though, and that is simply
the children here.  Children here are cheeky from birth, firstly they
are almost born walking and definitely are born laughing. The worst
conditions they live in, the cheekier and more affectionate they are.
Toddlers are hugely sociable, secure in themselves and independent
from the get-go, largely to the situations they are born into,
typically single mothers with little capacity to care for, feed or
educate their children. They are extremely funny and sarcastic and a
pleasure to work with. Children here make it very easy to forget all
the sadness of the city.

I lived with toddlers and young pregnant mothers for the first two and
a half years that I was here while working everyday on the street with
teenage boys. The communities that I have worked with on the street
have been the best experiences of my life, and while I do not work
directly work on the street at the moment, I am in touch with a lot of
the teenagers from the last few years that I became close to.
Friendship has often replaced a work relationship and on a bad day I
will hit the streets to cheer myself up. I have experienced so much
loyalty and friendship from people that at face value have little to
offer except unconditional love and understanding. It is this
community of people, that have nothing except for self-assurance,
self-respect and strength, that keep me here.

I now work focussing on organising support, eg writing funding proposals etc
for our various projects one of which includes a crèche due to be opened in
the next two months which will care for 150 children in one of the most
impoverished areas in Rio de Janeiro. While I realise the benefit for the
charity, I yearn to be back on the streets and really miss being with the
children and the teenagers on a day to day basis."

Brazil - Country Profile