Brazil – “Querida Amazonia”

“When someone goes on a mission, he does not go to preach the Gospel to trees and rivers, but to people.”

Father Piotr Schewior is a Polish missionary priest working in the heart of the Amazon jungle in Brazil for over 23 years. Based in the town of Tefe along the Amazon River, access to the population is only possible by water or by plane. Fr Piotr’s life is given to helping the Ribeirinhos; those who live on the “banks of the river”. For them, the river, water, is their life. Father Piotr spends three months a year living on his barge visiting each of the 35 isolated settlements around Tefe. Four large challenges confront the communities: alcoholism, paedophilia (and resulting teen pregnancies), drug abuse – and a problem for the entire Amazon, “Desmatamento” (deforestation); illegal logging for agriculture and cattle farming. The impact of the increasing devastation on the local population is critical as their entire livelihood depends on the forest. Father Piotr works to bring information, and often solutions, to community problems, and renews their faith.