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Disenfranchised  daddies of color face daunting odds to raise healthy babies on Fortaleza´s (pop: 2,687,000) fringes in Northeast Brazil. The unfathomably high homicide rate (87.9/100,000) reflects the constant threat of everyday violence-- gang wars, femicides, police brutality.  The age-specific homicide rate-- 15 to 25 years old-- climbs even HIGHER to a mind-boggling  140.2/100,000 -- among  the world´s highest. The victims are 94.4% males.  

C & M Foundation´s SASSY father-focused antidote, inspired in the Theory of Change (TOC), maps the flow of transformative conditions required for "healthy inclusion and gender justice" at Gonzaga Mota Public Hospital, Barra do Ceará--oldest, most diverse, and dangerous enclave. "Expectant" dads are bonded, affectionately, to babies during gestation to 2-years-of-age, shifting fathers´"life-devaluing" mindset to a "life-cherishing" ethos. Practice of 60 innovative birth/"Playtime" technologies remoralize and empower men as competent "Doting Daddies"---linked, collectively, via Chatbot cellphone technology. Access barriers and stigmas succumb after advocating radical community outreach, paternity rights, and human empathy training ("Caring-in-Diversity") for medical professionals and hospital staff.  We anticipate  that father-bonded kids are born healthier and thrive best; violent crimes  will  decline. C & M Foundation envisions  "Daddy´s Embrace" being featured in a full-length Hollywood-produced documentary film.  Not only will we scale-up our model to all public maternity hospitals in Fortaleza but  through an ongoing partnership with UNILAB-CE, we will share our  innovation in South-to-South exchange with Portugal and  Portuguese-speaking African countries. 

Daddy´s Embrace, Phase 1 (2014-2017), was generously supported by the  Bill & Melinda Gates Grand Challenges, FUNCAP-Harvard Medical School International Collaboration. C & M Foundation is  seeking support for Phase 2 of this daddy-empowering innovation. DADDY-UP with us!  

For the fourth consecutive year, Brazil has been earmarked as the country where the  most persons LGBTQIA+ are killed in  the world--a human tragedy. According to the Observatory of  Deaths and Violent Crimes against LGBTQIA+ Persons,, 316 deaths were registered in 2021, a 33.3% increase over 237 killings in 2020.  The more than 300 deaths in 2021  occurred mostly in our inequitable Northeast region  among gay men (45.9%), travestis and transwomen  (44.6%). While the victims'  ages ranged from 13 to 67 years , the bulk (30,4%) were  20-29 years old.   

In  our state of Ceará,  58 persons LGBTQIA+ were killed in 2020 alone, according to GRAB ( White Wings Resistance Group),   C & M Foundation's past partner in HIV/AIDS prevention.  Mortality  data  from activist groups such as GRAB-CE and  GAPA-CE is vital since the  State Secretary of Public Safety and Public Defense does not record or classify homicide data according to the victim's sexual identity or orientation--a grave oversight for policy makers. 

 But beyond missing official data about  victims'  racial/ sexual diversity,  the pure brutality of recent murders in Bom Jardim ( on  Fortaleza's periphery) has stunned  the world.  On February 15, 2017, twelve locals —seven men and five teenage boys—tortured and executed Dandara dos Santos, a 42-year-old travesti,  in broad daylight, in front of cameras that captured the  cruel images;  later, they were posted on social media  causing  a public outcry for justice.   But Dandara's revolting  case is not  an isolated one  in Fortaleza --a  context of poverty,  social vulnerability  and  male superiority or machismo.  In  February 2022, the LGBTphobia and gender violence repeated itself  in Bom Jardim. This time the victim was 22-year-old  Sofia Gisely, a travesti , beloved by family and  neighbors, who was stoned to death.  

These two recent  heinous crimes motivated C & M Foundation to reactivate our 30-year partnership with The Spiritual Union of Umbanda in Ceará  and its President,  Father-of--Gods José  Daniel  Lima.  Together, we are on a quest to create a model  violence prevention  & human rights promotion intervention  at the  Umbanda Spiritual Center  Pai José de Angola.  We aim  to scale-up the model to some 400 terreiros or Umbanda worship  centers in Fortaleza. 

The race to neutralize our carbon "footprint" on Earth is underway. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, some 76% of greenhouse gas emissions come in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2)--the principal cause of global warming. To mitigate climate change-- and promote planetary survival—it is urgent that scientists and citizens, worldwide, create innovative strategies to naturally trap and store carbon, reducing its atmospheric levels.  As with trees, photosynethizing marine algae can be a critical alley in carbon capturing. Thus, the preservation and restoration of natural microalgae and seaweed habitats can help combat climate change. Not only is there an increase in marine biodiversity –in fish and invertebrates-- and an improvement in water clarity but, importantly, marine algae can capture carbon and nitrogen that cause toxic pollution. Promoting carbon neutrality is a top global priority. 

Thus, we propose an innovative EthnoNature Solutions that captures  carbon naturally, empowers indigenous peoples and their local knowledge, creates sustainable sources of income, and advances digital and satellite-based technologies to quantify and monitor carbon removal.   

Specifically, we intend to: 1.) Conduct a critical situational analysis to pinpoint social forces/determinants undermining past project success; 2.) Describe Tremembé ethno-nature cosmology and ritual practices to conserve land-sea resources; 3.) Revolutionize marine algae cultivation, radically engaging Tremembé native partners in all phases;  4.) Revive Ceará´s marine algea cultivation by co-constructing a bold Ethno-Nature solution based on cutting-edge technologies; 5.) Quantifying and monitoring their impact on carbon removal  and indigenous people´s self-determination. 

Field Study Sites in NE Brazil: The 3 field study sites are all traditional fishing villages: Mundaú, Flecheiras and Guajirú located in Itapipoca e Trairi counties. Situated 130-150 kilometers from Fortaleza, all 3 coastal villages were included in the original algae project. This Ethno-Nature Solution, however, will also focus fieldwork on the previously "unrecognized" indigenous Tremembé reserve (aldeia). The native territory--3,580 hectares situated at the mouth of the Mundaú River--was officially delineated as Tremembé land by Federal Law 1.318 on August 11, 2015--but 6 years ago. The Tremembé´s history is marked by struggle, violence and resistance against powerful landholders and foreign property developers. Prior to the Brazilian Public Ministry´s intervening to defend native land rights, an upscale international mega-tourist-complex (Novo Atlântida Resort) was planned for the Tremembé´s pristine beachfront property.

Brazil is a dangerous place to be a woman. Every two hours, a woman is murdered; every 15 seconds one is attacked (UN, 2015). In the Northeast, 3 of 10 (27%) women have suffered an episode of domestic violence during her lifetime. And, Brazil ranks 5th in female homicides, according to WHO’s Map of

Violence. Of these, 10% are passion crimes (Waiselfisz, 2015) which Minayo (2014) argues are rooted in male dominance or machismo and defending his Code of Honor. 

Inspired by the Oscar-winning foreign film, Saving Face, which exposed the cruel acid burning of Pakistani women by intimate male partners,  C & M Foundation researchers Drs. Arruda, Braide and Nations began a pioneering ethnographic investigation, in 2008, of female burn patients at a busy Burn Unit in Fortaleza´s major public health hospital, José Frota Institute (IJF).  After building rapport with burned female patients, our researchers discovered many had been victims of gender violence by husbands, boyfriends and ex-spouses; the men doused their bodies with alcohol and set them ablaze-- like a "human torch."  Prior to our anthropological research, the renown clinical staff had been "blinded" to this cruel reality reported in the article--  Arruda, CN, Braide, ASG, Nations M. “Raw and Charred Flesh: The experience of burned women in Northeast Brazil. Cadernos Saúde Pública, 30:10:2057-2067, 2014.  This eye-opening publication was selected  by the Brazilian Ministry of Science & Technology as a finalist in its competition for The Most Outstanding Scientific Article in 2015.  Beyond this, the ethnographic study made huge strides in raising the clinical staff´s  consciousness about the "hidden" sexist etiology of burns.  Before medical professionals routinely classified cases  as "household accidents" on women´s medical charts.  Today, thanks to the critical insights of  C & M Foundation  researchers, female burn patients´ narratives are solicited and heard by clinicians.   And, women burned alive are cared for, compassionately, by conscious  medical  professionals who recognize they are victims of unlawful and immoral gender violence.

Building on our discoveries, C & M Foundation is seeking support for this new sassy solution to prevent disfiguring and deadly burn violence.  We aim to  radically empower girls and women against gender violence. Partnering with IAQ--Burn Patient´s Support Institute--in Fortaleza (associate with IJF Public Hospital), this 3-year project links the heinous crime of burning women alive to passion crimes, machismo and men’s Code of Honor. Utilizing an ethno-epidemiological approach, this innovative project empowers 10 survivors of burn violence and disfigurement to mobilize (200) poor women and (200) adolescent girls (and 400 controls) to prevent such aggression. An ethnographic film and printed folder narrating the lived-experience of burn victims will be produced and utilized in training sessions and focal group discussions about gender violence, burn trauma, human rights, legal actions—including the Maria da Penha Law that punishes aggressors and promotes peaceful conflict resolution. A cellular phone APP will be created and transmitted to reinforce prevention messages. A pre-post intervention evaluation will be performed; results will be analyzed with SPSS and compared to a comparable control group of 400 non-participants. Qualitative interviews will be conducted with 50 key informants to fine-tune the intervention.  

In Brazil, from January 2, 2020 to August 11, 2022, there have been a mind-boggling 34,066,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 680,531 deaths reported to WHO--one of the highest death tolls in the world.--just behind the United States.

In our state of Ceará,  in Northeast Brazil,  COVID-deaths have totaled  27,508  by August 17, 2022.  Braga et. al (2020) have reported that  while  the overall incidence rate in Brazil is 7.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the rate in Ceará is double that at 14.1 per 100,000 inhabitants.  The neighborhoods of Fortaleza with the highest propensity for the COVID-19  epidemic are those with a wide disparity of socioeconomic statuses, including the very poor neighborhoods on the western border of the city.  This Barra do Ceará enclave--the oldest, most racially-diverse and dangerous--is precisely where Culture & Medicine Foundation focuses are field research and actions. 

Here, COVID-19 deaths have been traumatizing for Fortaleza´s poorest families.  The public health hospital prohibited entry of sick and dying patients´ family members,  televised last farewells were not facilitated,  funeral rituals were canceled; deceased bodies were ceremoniously disposed.  This cruel reality continues to haunt surviving family members.   

Bronislaw Malinowski´s  classic  1922 ethnographic study Argonauts of the Western Pacific revealed to  anthropologists the critical role rituals play in culture.  Unpredictable life events--such as COVID deaths--can be controlled symbolically by performing rituals, giving them a greater sense of certainty.  That´s to say, the practice of mourning rituals has a critical role to play in societies enduring the vicissitudes of life and death. 

Northeast Brazil is known for its deep religiosity and spirituality, cultural diversity and wide array of funerary rituals-- from the Afro-Brazilian Umbanda "Crying Drum" (Tambor de Choro) farewell ceremony to the Catholic´s Seventh Day Mass (Missa do Sétimo Dia), among others.       

Culture & Medicine Foundation´s bold solution to alleviate COVID-19  survivors´ prolonged anguish, despair, depression, and PTSD-- caused by a loved one´s  traumatic departure-- is to encourage  necessary grief.  Culture & Medicine Foundation researchers and community partners propose to: 1.) conduct a "thick" ethnographic description of existing mourning rituals practiced in the major religious groups in the Barra do Ceará region: spiritism, folk-Catholicism, Umbanda, Assembly of God, etc.; 2.) adapt customary farewell rituals to COVID reality and traumatic hospital death; 3.)  re-enact symbolic farewells and belated funerary rituals--according to local cultural prescriptions--for COVID  family  survivors. Collective post factum grieving of beloved ones who perished, inexplicably, during the pandemic will sooth persisting  heartache and celebrate the life and legacy of  COVID victims--a long overdue cultural tribute.  

C & M Foundation researchers have ample experience with infant death trauma and maternal grief response. We have published extensively on the topic, including:  

--Nations M, Corlis J, Feitosa JID.  Cumbered Cries: Contextual Constraints on Maternal Grief in Northeast Brazil. Current Anthropology 56:5 (Oct): 613-637, 2015. Doi: 10.1086/683171.

In poor rural communities in Ceará, residents identify "the suffering woman" (a mulher sofrida).  She is likely an older female who has endured, for decades, the hard surface of life in poverty.  Over a lifetime, she has accumulated myriad  everyday violence--domestic aggression, alcoholism, marital infidelity, sexual assaults, unwanted pregnancies, endemic diseases, financial insecurity, food scarcity,  hunger, violent crimes, and so much more.  It is said, that such social suffering is " impressed upon" her soul and, then, externalized as "tattoos," leaving their mark on her skin´s surface. Scars, facial wrinkles, sagging flesh, age spots, etc. are telltale signs of embodied human suffering. The skin tells the "suffering woman's" life story.  

Results of a fascinating study by physical therapist and acupuncture specialist, Olávo Ximenes Junior, (2006) entitled:  Perceived Efficacy of Facial Electro-Acupuncture: Promotion of Energetic Equilibrium, Health antnd Well-Being of Older Women,  provide the basis of C & M Foundation´s holistic healthy aging  project.   A small exploratory study in a public health clinic on the rural outskirts of Aquiraz --some 20 kilometers from Fortaleza--revealed that 11 "suffering women," over 60 years of age, perceived an improvement in their "old" and "ugly" appearance and general well-being after electro-acupuncture treatments-- albeit their subjective ethno-evaluation highlighted signs not generally recognized by the  clinical dermatological assessment.  

This C & M Foundation will expand on Dr. Olávo Ximenes Junior´s (2006) study. Partnering with a similar rural community of agricultural workers, we will promote  healthy aging of "suffering women" using a three-pillar, holistic--  body, mind and spirit--healing paradigm.  Facial electro-acupuncture will be utilized to stimulate and balance the body´s vital energy and rejuvenate the facial skin.  Mediation and mindfulness practices will promote mental and emotional well-being. And, finally, self-care, self-esteem enhancement, and political empowerment with discussion and debates about the newly adopted " Rights of the Older Person" is soul-healing. 

Ceará state, marketed by the Secretary of Tourism as the "Land of Sunshine" (Terra do Sol), is  the most popular tourist destination in Northeast Brazil; for European tourists it ranks third in Brazil behind only São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.  Some 500,000 tourists are expected to visit Ceará during  high season, from December 2022 to January 2023. According to the Observatory of Tourism, some 50 sectors of the economy--hotels, bars, nightclubs, transportation, etc.--are impacted by tourism, injecting millions of US$ annually into the local economy.  

Sexual tourism is  a large portion of this revenue. Fortaleza has become a leading  "sex capital of the world."  The sprawling and economically inequitable beachfront city is  the most popular tourist destination in Northeast Brazil;  for European tourists, Fortaleza ranks third in behind only São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.  Some 500,000 tourists are expected to visit Ceará during  high season, from December 2022 to January 2023. According to the Observatory of Tourism, some 50 sectors of the economy--hotels, bars, nightclubs, transportation, etc.--are impacted by tourism, injecting millions of US$ annually into the local economy. 

Given the lock-down, drastic decline of visitors during  the COVID pandemic  and increased unemployment, we hypothesize that exploitative sexual tourism is on the raise and government controls have been relaxed during the past 2-3 years. Authorities, hotel owners,  police forces, etc. appear to have "turned an eye" towards  infractions of protective rules and laws in order to attract foreign tourist trade during these hard economic times.  

But since 1991, C & M Foundation has  partnered with APROCE--Ceará Association of Prostitutes--building rapport and gaining an empathetic viewpoint of  the "hard side of the easy life," according to APROCE members.   The NGO´s militant President, Rosarinha Sampio, and members were the first community AIDS educators in Ceará.  They integrated into  C & M Foundation´s  AIDS & Umbanda project, training Fathers-of-the-Gods and devotees in HIV/AIDS prevention.  In turn, C & M Foundation helped write their renewable grant, "Education through Seduction," funded by the Ministry of Health. 

For 30 years, Culture & Medicine Foundation has been morally committed to translational science.  Together with community partners-- traditional healers and midwifes, Afro-Brazilian Umbanda priests, persons with AIDS, new fathers, etc.-- we have re-framed medical knowledge,  information and our research findings. We have translated biomedicine  into cultural paradigms of reality in order to enhance comprehension--and empowerment--of people with low-literacy and diverse non-biomedical worldviews.   

That popular and professional  perspectives of "reality" differ and can lead to serious misunderstanding  in clinical communication and public health campaigns has been verified in research by Culture & Medicine Foundation researchers,  in two articles:  Machado, KCB & Nations, M. Prisms of Perception: Multiple Interpretations of Health Campaigns in Northeast Brazil. Cadernos Saúde Pública 27:12:2469-73, 2011.  de Sousa JRP &  Nations, M. Multiple Perspectives of Infant  Mortality in Ceará State, Brazil. Cadernos Saúde Pública 27:2:260-68, 2011. 

Ethnographers, popular artists, ethnographic filmmakers, community focus groups and more were key players in this tedious--albeit essential-- translation process. Over the years, Culture & Medicine Foundation researchers and community-based co-authors have created, tested, produced, published and disseminated an impressive number of unique and creative self-help manuals and educational materials, including:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       --Nations M, Andrade FA, Barreto A. Illustrations: Brandão, JN.  Prayers and Oral Rehydration Saving Children: How to Motivate Popular Healers to Cure Diarrheal Dehydration. Fortaleza: Editora Celegráfica e Fotolito Ltda. 1997; 

--Nations M & Soares JF.  21 Energy Currents of Defense against AIDS: Coloring, Singing & Learning. Fortaleza: Editora Celegráfica Fotolito Ltda., 1997;  

--Nations M.  illustrations:  Brandão JN. Love Cards. [trans] AIDSCAP-Brazil-Family Health International-Ministry of Health- C & M Foundation, Fortaleza, Brazil, 1998; 

--Nations M, Souza MA, Brown MM. Illustrations:  Brandão, JN.  Golden Arrow: How to Collaborate with Indian Curers to Open the Pathway to Control STDS and other “worldly diseases” [trans]. Fortaleza, Brazil: Editora Celegráfica Fotolito Ltda, 1998; 

--Nations M. Indian Healer’s Secrets to Strengthen the Body with Agrião-do-Brejo (Eclipta prostrata (L.) Hassk. [trans] Fortaleza, Brazil: Editora Celegráfica e Fotolito Ltda., 2000;  

--Nations M, Brandão JN. The Male Goat (Macho) and his Dona (Flor). [trans] Ministry of Health, National AIDS Program-C & M Foundation.  Fortaleza, Brazil, 2001;