Acao da Cidadania contra a Miséria e pela Vida, Brazil

The "Citizen's Action Against Hunger and Misery, and for Life" started in 1993, after the process of impeachment of the former President Fernando Collor de Mello. The impeachment movement was a mass mobilisation which brought together a wide range of sectors from the Brazilian civil society, organised around the "Movement for Ethics in Politics". After the impeachment, this movement initiated a discussion about what the next step should be with regard to an ethical reorientation of politics in Brazil. The conclusion was that democracy and misery are incompatible. The struggle and immediate actions against misery and hunger were defined as an absolute priority.

According to research made by a governmental institution (IPEA), Brazil has a population of 32 million people living in conditions of absolute misery, which means about 9 million families. The main goal of the Citizen's Action is to eradicate the hunger and misery in Brazil. This is a non-governmental, totally decentralised movement, characterised by the organisation of committees all over the country formed by persons from different sectors of the civil society.

The action guidelines of the movement, known as "Campaign Against Hunger", are divided in two directions: the emergencial and the structural. In other words, at the same time you distribute food you must develop actions that give the people the conditions to have their own way to survive. So, in 1994 the central theme of the campaign was generation of jobs. In 1995, the actions were organised around the issue of land democratisation, meaning a better distribution and use of both rural and urban land.

Today there are thousands of citizens committees organised in all of the 24 states of the country. Every committee is free to develop the projects that will better address the problems of the communities they are working with. According to a survey conducted by IBOPE, a major Brazilian research institute, there are 3 million people permanently involved with committee activities.

The most usual projects are in the areas of nutrition, employment, housing, health, and sanitation. There are popular restaurants, professionalizing courses, and workers cooperatives that produce shoes, bricks, clothes, bread, etc. In the rural areas there are community vegetable gardens and cooperatives. Most of the committees work and raise funds through partnerships with other committees, private and public companies, churches, universities, local governments, etc. This is another peculiar characteristic of the Action: the emergence of new partnerships. Never before have so many different sectors acted side by side, joining their efforts and resources to fight hunger together. The campaign doesn't belong to any religion or political party.

Besides the local actions, there are the national ones too. A good example is "Christmas Without Hunger" that was organised for the second time last year. All of society was called by the committees and the media to donate food. In 1994, at least 1,000 tons of food were distributed all over the country by this campaign, that become one of the biggest events of the Citizen's Action.