Education and Youth
The missionaries saw education as a way to promote dignity. They created the first schools, fought against illiteracy, and established spaces for healthy leisure activities. The first children’s and youth band dates back to 1927, and by 1932 they had already created and were running six schools. In 1936, 90 students attended the school in Lábrea.
On January 1, 1937, the Augustinian Recollect Missionaries opened the Our Lady of Consolation girls’ school, which had 97 students in 1938. In 1942 Isidoro Irigoyen began teaching the children of Canutama at his home, and in 1957 he inaugurated the school building, for which he invented a brick-making machine. In 1951, the Recollect Luis Montes built the first school in Pauiní, and in 1964, the Recollects Vitório Cestaro and Augusto Novacki received wood from the Prelature to build a house for the missionaries in Tapauá, but they decided to use it to open the first school.
In 1949, the Santa Rita School opened in Lábrea, and from 1954 it was managed by the Augustinian Recollect Missionaries; by 1959 it had 150 students, 40 of whom were boarders. In 1965, they added adult literacy classes and the Santa Rita Workshop, with sewing and tailoring classes and distribution of the products to the underprivileged.
In 1967, the Prelature opened and entrusted the Marist Brothers with the first secondary school, Saint Augustine. This completed the infrastructure for all non-higher education levels. In 1989, the school was transferred to the Amazonas State Department of Education, but remained under the direction of the Marist Brothers, who added a sports complex and vocational training in carpentry.
In 1974, with the newly established sisterhood between the Prelature of Lábrea and the Diocese of Vitoria by the Brazilian Episcopal Conference, a team of volunteers from Vitória offered courses in hairdressing, beauty, sewing, cooking and first aid.
In 1974, the Marist Brothers arrived in Tapauá to manage the urban school and provide guidance to the rural schools. By 1975, ten Marist Brothers were serving 650 students at the mission. In 1984, the Prelature was educating 3,000 students. Since then, its responsibility has gradually decreased as the State and municipalities have assumed their obligations.
Many Augustinian Recollect missionaries have been teachers in the public school system. The schools filled their teaching positions with university-qualified teachers, and the religious men made contact with all the local youth, offering a witness of commitment and professionalism even to non-Catholics.
In 1992, most of the riverside residents and those over 40 were illiterate, and some 600 children were still not enrolled in school. In 1996, the Augustinian Recollect friar Domingos Saladaga took over as municipal coordinator in Tapauá for the federal government’s “Solidarity Literacy” project, which focused on the riverside communities.
In 1993, the Prelature designated minors as a pastoral priority. It established the Hope Centers (Lábrea, 1994; Tapauá, 1998; Pauiní, 2001), spaces for healthy recreation, learning, and safe havens for approximately 500 children each year. In Tapauá, the Oblate Sisters of the Assumption inaugurated the Sister Rosa Children’s and Adolescents’ Home (LACIR), offering socio-educational workshops; and since 2021, the Gabriela Project, run by the Josephine Sisters, has been operating in Belo Monte and Foz de Tapauá.
Since late 2014, the Prelature has been collaborating with the Association of Parents and Friends of People with Special Needs (APAE). Its aim is to strengthen special education, eliminate all forms of discrimination, and advocate for public policies that support this group.
In addition to the school buildings themselves, the Prelature has built multi-sports centers for a healthier life and better socialization with values.
Health
The distribution of medicines by the Prelature, in collaboration with Propaganda Fide, the Holy Childhood of Paris, and various Recollect ministries in Venezuela, has been documented since at least 1932. Infant mortality was appalling: 50% of those born did not reach the age of seven. In 1962, 44% of those who died in the city of Lábrea were children.
The Prelature was the only institution that oversaw public health until 1969. Outpatient clinics were built where religious personnel provided care and medicines were distributed using resources from Adveniat (Germany), Caritas USA, and the Alliance for Progress program in the United States; in 1964, this amounted to more than one hundred tons of medicine valued at $8,650. The first hospital in Lábrea (1969), although publicly managed from the outset, was financed by Misereor (Germany) through a project initiated by the missionaries.
The Augustinian Recollect friar Jesús Fernández is remembered in Pauiní for his care during childbirth. And in Pauiní and Tapauá, during the 1970s, the Recollects managed the municipal health services. Throughout the 20th century, the book Where There Is No Doctor was carried on missionary ships to guide them in this task in all rural areas.
Since 1973, the sister Diocese of Vitoria has collaborated in providing medical care with volunteers and resources. Currently, it does so through the hospital ship Laguna Negra, funded in Spain in 2013 and managed by the Epiphany Community, which organizes the annual campaign to visit riverside and indigenous communities.
A milestone was the attention given to Hansen’s disease sufferers, who were forced to live in segregated neighborhoods and were barred from entering shops and banks. In 1986, the Prelature launched the Hansen’s Disease Rehabilitation Movement (MORHAN) and sought resources for infrastructure and clinics. They obtained support from the Superintendence of Amazonas and from Germany. Today, MORHAN is self-managed and receives support from the Prelature and the NGO Comité Ipiranga.
In 1993, an Augustinian Recollect missionary took a course to implement the Pastoral Care for Children, which serves pregnant women and children from birth to age six. Within seven years, it had 270 leaders and was serving 3,300 families. Joyce Terezinha, a nurse from Vitoria, brought it to the entire Prelature between 1998 and 2005. Measuring and weighing children (“celebrating life party”), providing training in preventative health, using monitoring records, and implementing protocols supervised by health authorities saved thousands of lives.
In Pauiní, with the collaboration of Manos Unidas (Spain) and the Franciscan Sisters of Manaus, a natural pharmacy managed by this pastoral group was opened in 2003. Families learn to combat malnutrition with local, low-cost products and recipes. The Oblate Sisters of the Assumption carried out a similar project in Tapauá.
Support for those with substance use disorders has been provided since 2006. It is currently coordinated by the Pastoral Care for Sobriety. The Prelature has its own support center in a rural area, integrated into the Fazenda Esperança network, called Saint Augustine.
In 2008, the Pastoral Care for the Elderly began in Canutama. Extended throughout the Prelature, it is organized through home visits to people over 60, checking if they are accompanied and what their needs are.
In 2020, a project of the Prelature financed two incubators for the municipal hospitals of Lábrea and Tapauá, emergency material for the COVID emergency and a program to deliver water purification filters to rural communities.
Missionaries have often been part of the municipal health councils, although much more can still be done in terms of political advocacy. In Tapauá and Lábrea, 5% of parish income goes to a Solidarity Fund for emergencies.
