June 11, 2025

Brazil Adventists Lead Humanitarian Initiatives for Venezuelan Refugees

Volunteers support the Warao Indigenous people with health, education, and faith.

by

Érika Uchôa

Since late 2024 a group of Seventh-day Adventists in Vitória da Conquista, a city located in Bahia, Brazil, have been carrying out community work with Venezuelan refugees of the Warao ethnic group. About 120 people in the district of Itapirema, organized into 24 families, live temporarily in an old decommissioned agricultural school that the local municipality devoted to emergency shelters.

The group’s initiatives include the involvement of local church members, Pathfinder and Adventurer clubs, volunteer teachers, entrepreneurs, health professionals, lawyers, and community members. According to leaders behind the initiative, the project seeks to offer shelter, social inclusion, dignity, and support to vulnerable families, in line with the public policies and social efforts of the local city government.

Everyone Involved

According to Tiago Lêra, coordinator of the Pathfinders in Vitória da Conquista, the initiative involves various steps. “We are mobilizing our entire region to support refugees with food, clothing, and other necessary items. It is a joint effort that has brought many people together, each one contributing what they can.”

In addition to the work done by the Adventists, the Warao community has the support of the Municipal Office of Social Development, as well as the local chapter of the Brazil Lawyers Association, which offers legal counsel to the newcomers.

Volunteer visits are constant, with delivery of food, clothing, hygiene products, and other basic items. Their focus, however, goes beyond emergency aid. It is an ongoing effort to promote personal and community development.

Professionals from various areas volunteer in the project. [Photo: South American Division News]

The work of the Adventurer clubs has been instrumental in the discipleship of the children of the Warao community. [Photo: South American Division News]

Recreational activities are part of the integration between volunteers and the refugee community. [Photo: South American Division News]

Teaching Moments

In the area of education, volunteers teach Portuguese with Bible-based materials. This process has been fundamental in facilitating the relationship of families and expanding their prospects for professional future in Brazil, initiative leaders said. In the field of health, consultations are carried out by volunteer doctors, dentists, and psychologists who offer humanitarian care with special attention to women and children.

During Easter week 2025, families participated in the programs of the Itapirema Seventh-day Adventist Church, and since then many have begun to attend services regularly. The relationship with the local community is also strengthened by sharing faith, Adventist leaders said.

Since Easter week, members of the Warao community have been attending the Itapirema Seventh-day Adventist Church. [Photo: South American Division News]

Heberson Licar led the Easter week program with the Warao community and has actively encouraged the participation of Pathfinders and Adventurers in the project. [Photo: South American Division News]

Agricultural activities include the planting of 300 plants of cassava, squash, watermelon, green beans, corn, and vegetables. [Photo: South American Division News]

Promoting Self-Sufficiency

One of the pillars of the project is the assistance to get people involved in self-supporting initiatives. Families have cultivated community gardens with the support of volunteers. They are also raising chickens, leaders reported.

As a project volunteer, businessman Jhonatan Moraes is helping develop the self-sufficiency of the Warao people. “The initial idea was to guarantee subsistence right there, within the community, with what they already knew how to do. We started with the gardens and then supported them as they raised chickens. Now, in addition to feeding families, the surplus is already being distributed across the region,” Moraes said.

Jhonatan and his wife, Daniela, volunteers in the project, participate in a cultural activity with the Warao community. [Photo: South American Division News]

Rubem Mata and Jhonny Mata, Indigenous leaders in the Warao community, and Tiago Lêra, leader of the project, share the plans for the agricultural initiative at a meeting of entrepreneurs. [Photo: South American Division News]

In a collective shelter Warao Indigenous people are encouraged to maintain their cultural traditions. [Photo: South American Division News]

Cultural Preservation and Respectful Discipleship

The project is also concerned with the cultural preservation of the Warao. For Heberson Licar, leader of the Pathfinders and Adventurers of the southwest region of Bahia, discipleship must be contextualized and respectful. “We want them to continue being Warao, without losing their identity. True discipleship teaches people within their history and culture without disrespecting them,” he explained.

Licar also highlighted that the project encourages mutual participation. “Unlike many specific projects, here there was a very strong response from the Indigenous community,” he said. “Their enthusiastic response is what keeps us going.”

The project in Itapirema is part of a broader plan of the Adventist Church in Vitória da Conquista, which seeks to serve different groups in vulnerable situations. “This is just one of the social initiatives that we are implementing,” Licar said. “We started with Venezuelan refugees, but we have already begun the process to also reach the homeless, seniors, orphans, and other at-risk people groups.”

The original version of this story was posted on the South American Division Spanish-language news site.

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