International Relief & Development (NGOs)

Sandro Souza, 29, makes a living fixing flats and otherwise getting broken bicycles moving again in the Santa Terezina neighborhood in Porto Alegre. It is home to a number of participants in the Casa Fonte Colombo programs. The neighborhood was once a slum of ramshackle shacks until the government stepped in and redeveloped the area with decent housing for the poor. About 1,500 families now live in decent housing.

With some help from Casa Fonte Colombo, Ana Paula da Silva de Castro, 27, (RELEASE BRZ005) is living a happy life with her daughter Eduarda Gabriela Castro dos Santos, 6, and husband of five years, Salatiel Braga Silva, 45, in their Porto Alegre, Brazil home. The center, operated by Pastoral de STDs/AIDS under the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of Brazil, attends to the needs of People living with HIV/AIDS. Ana lives with her husband who occasionally also uses services at the Casa. Salatiel and Eduarda do not have the disease. Ana has lived with HIV since she was at least 21, when she was tested for the disease while pregnant with Eduarda. As a teenager she lived on the streets sniffing glue and doing drugs like cocaine, and maconha. She became pregnant at 19, but lost the child. She not only received help from the Casa Fonte Columbo in dealing with the disease but became active in the center as well as in a project that reached out to other HIV positive people in the community to get them involved it the free anti-retroviral program operated by the Brazilian government. The center helped her and her and her husband Salatiel get off drugs and alcohol leadiing to a more stable and happy marriage for the couple. "Fonte Colombo has made 100 percent difference in our lives," she said.