Southwark: Environmental activist from Brazil to speak in Brixton

Claudelice Silva dos Santo Image CAFOD

A leading Brazilian activist and CAFOD partner, Claudelice Silva dos Santo will be speaking at Southwark Diocese JPIC Assembly next Saturday 20 November at Corpus Christi church in Brixton Hill.

The title of the day is: is 'COP26: What Next?' The Assembly starts at 11am, following the 10am parish Mass.

Other items on the agenda will include local initiatives, such as Wimbledon's experience as a LiveSimply parish and the work of the newly formed teams of Laudato Si animators.

Claudelice Silva dos Santo comes from from from Nova Ixipuna in Pará, northern Brazilian state in the Amazonia National Park. While she was there, her community came under attack by armed men who burned tents, forced residents into lorries, hooded and beat them and then dumped them by the roadside far from home. Some older people were even tied up and left on anthills.

Her community is involved in a long-running dispute with local ranchers. Her brother José Claudio Ribeiro dos Santos, and sister-in-law, Maria do Espírito Santo, were killed in the area in 2011. Claudelice had fought alongside them for the right to access to land and had denounced human rights violations resulting from land grabbing, logging and crimes against the environment. She continues to fight for the forest to keep their memory alive, and as a consequence she has been subjected to a number of threats

Claudelice remembers her childhood when the forest covered far more of the land and her family harvested Brazil nuts and farmed in harmony with nature. Vast areas are now degraded, with trees stripped by deforestation and illegal logging. She says: "The Amazon is our life. People ask if I want to go elsewhere. But this is my place. My ancestors are here. Although I'm afraid, it doesn't mean I'm going to stop. The rights of people are being taken away."

"José and Maria fought injustice because they wanted a better world for others. They wanted to live in peace in the place that was theirs - just as so many others continue to fight for their lands, forests and waters around the world. But 11 years on, the situation remains the same, and in some ways is even worse - because there's even less forest and more environmental defenders are being killed. Everything they fought against continues: the killings, the destruction of the forest."

Claudelice keeps asking the international community to pay attention, saying "I will not remain silent. We've reached the limit of everything. Nature's limit. The limit of our own strength. But we are still alive and we will continue to resist. "

All are welcome to come and hear this brave and inspirational speaker.

Email jpiccontact@rcaos.org.uk to reserve your place. Please bring a packed lunch. Tea and coffee provided.