Maria de Lourdes Braz Vieira has been dedicated for over 31 years to improve the lives of older people, their families, and communities, particularly in the context of a favela neighbourhood (a type of slum in Brazil that has experienced critical historical neglect). She is the General Coordinator and Project Manager of the Centro Dia Santa Ana, which runs two houses in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro that function as a Day Centre / Coexistence and Living Centre for older people and other people across generations who find themselves in need of care they cannot find elsewhere.
Through the Centro Dia Santa Ana, Maria de Lourdes Braz Vieira works to develop practical actions to promote the health and well-being of local older people and combat age-based, racial, economic and social prejudice through care, with the objective of improving the quality of lives of older people and their families in the communities where they live. The two houses of the Centro Dia Santa Ana together serve about 300 people directly and 1,200 people indirectly, most of whom are older women.
Hundreds of older people arrive at the Centro Dia Santa Ana’s houses in poor physical and emotional health. Maria de Lourdes Braz Vieira is committed to support them to get better, stronger and with higher self-esteem not only through direct care, but also through workshops on dancing, singing, arts and crafts, and others that enable these older people to remember their forgotten talents or even discover new ones. Providing a supportive and safe environment, with qualified people committed to care, enables the Centro Dia Santa Ana to encourage older people to gain awareness of their own needs and re-establish independence.
The impact of Maria de Lourdes Braz Vieira’s work in an extremely under-resourced, local setting cannot be understated – and demonstrates profound leadership and innovation in finding ways to foster healthy ageing in the most challenging of contexts.