On Leaving Curitiba - Shelley's Reflections on July 28

Curitiba is a big city, very big.  I think there are close to 2 million people living there.  One could easily get lost in the hustle and bustle of cars and busses, tall buildings, sprawling neighborhoods and people everywhere.  And it might be very difficult to find the way through the enormity of a social system in a city of this size.  Over the past two weeks, I entered into what felt like a private world of illness, homelessness and poverty.  And in this world I saw resilience, ingenuity, hope, love, caring and pride. 

Curitiba is divided into 9 districts, each with its own central city hall that allows citizens of the district ease of access to social services.  Within the city, the bus system creates a web of low cost access to each district and, within each district, citizens can get to local health and social services.  We had the privilege of visiting many of the health and social services within several districts, including Cajaru, a district of about 100,000 citizens.  We experienced a broad range of services from local health clinics, to community organizations where women gather to create crafts to sell, to after school programs where juveniles gather to gain skills that will keep them off the streets and assist them in building a better life for themselves.  The concept seems so beautiful and sounds so right, yet I believe that are complexities below the surface that we could not understand given our language barrier and limited time.  And I know that there are many individuals helping others in the midst of these complexities.

I am left with this conceptual image:  the healthcare and social service systems in Brazil seem to be much like a prism.  In the daylight, the prism is beautiful and colorful from all angles.  But on a cloudy day, the beauty and colors are not readily available.  I will need to use my own recall to remember the beauty.  And I will hold onto this image with the memory of the many individuals who are working hard to assist others in navigating a system that is large, overwhelming and maybe easy to get lost in.  Those helping others are the living beautiful colorful aspects of the prism and they, in turn, see the beauty and colors in each individual who needs their help.  Together they make the system work.  They provide the light needed for the prism to beam with beauty even on the cloudiest of days.