Vulnerable groups living in poor sections of Rio de Janeiro, the second-largest city in Brazil, are the focus of MSF's current work in this country. Since July 2003, MSF has been running a primary health center in Marcílio Dias, an impoverished community in the northern part of the city.
The center provides care for the community's 10,000 people, who live in poor conditions with limited access to health care or social services. MSF's project targets women, children and the elderly. The team offers consultations on a daily basis, provides medicines and promotes preventive health. Each month, approximately 1,500 people consult the clinic. A recent vaccination campaign against poliomyelitis undertaken by MSF staff reached all 784 children in the Marcílio Dias community.
MSF has created discussion groups in which residents can talk about their problems, addressing issues such as health, violence and early pregnancy. The team is composed of medical doctors, nurses, a psychologist, a social assistant, an educator, and a group of six local community health agents who visit families on a regular basis to help prevent problems.
Another group of women from the community work as volunteers to establish links between the families and the MSF center, mainly through psychosocial activities.
MSF also provides social, medical and psychological assistance to adults living on the streets of the city's downtown and Copacabana neighborhoods. A multidisciplinary team of a doctor, nurse, social worker and psychologist offer help to those who live or depend on the streets to survive. More than 1,000 people have received care from the team since July 2003.
MSF also carries out advocacy efforts with government authorities and within civil society. For example, in an effort to minimize the prejudice and stigma encountered by the homeless, the team has developed a photo exhibition that illustrates their stories, difficulties, needs and expectations.
In addition, MSF is doing advocacy work to stop local authorities from carrying out a "clean-up operation" in which the military police, employing a garbage truck, forcibly remove street people's belongings from the places where they are kept.
