The path of the Pastoral da Criança (Child's Pastoral) is filled with stories of love, hope, achievements, overcoming of difficulties and transformation of reality. The follow up of families and the children within the community and family contexts is an example of the capacity the organized societies have to find solutions to their problems.
In the poor communities where there is an established Pastoral da Criança, the child mortality is 13 deaths for every one thousand children born alive, almost half of the national average in Brazil, which is 26 deaths per one thousand, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics data of 2003. In the last 25 years, the Pastoral da Criança has expanded over the whole of Brazil. Today, volunteers follow 2 million children and pregnant women in Brazil every month.
But, there is still a lot to be done! Nowadays, the Pastoral da Criança follows approximately 20% of the poor Brazilian children. The goal to be reached is 100% of those children.
The numbers reveal that the work of the Pastoral da Criança is well received all over the country. However, in addition to growing and saving lives, the Pastoral da Criança wishes to change the reality of the children, the women and men, of the followed. To illuminate their wish to help and instruct and to see their children growing healthily and developing.
There are many statistics regarding this successful work, but the most important one of all cannot be accounted for, which is the social transformation of the communities that have as their protagonists the volunteers and the families followed.