Life, struggle and People’s Health Movement in Brazil: interview with Sister Anne Whibey

ABSTRACT This text was written from the interview with People’s Health Movement (PHM) activist Anne Caroline Wihbey, Sister of the Notre Dame de Namur Congregation, an American woman of Lebanese ancestry, with a recognized trajectory in social development in the state of Maranhão, in northeastern Brazil. At the age of 95, a comrade and lover of all struggles for dignity and justice, she stands firmly on the road. Between road trips Belém/São Luís and São Luís/Belém, currently, she is committed to organizing her personal archive on the history of PHM, in general, and in Maranhão, in particular. After doing that, she often says she ‘can disappear’. Always involved in the work of popular education, approaching the harms resulting from megaprojects in the life of the population, she reaffirms that health and environment are not commodities. Moving forward in the mobilizing action, Sister Anne continues to be aware of her advanced age, gathering effort to accept her limits with joy and determination. This article is based on conversations with Sister Anne, building a story about her history, her coming from the United States to Brazil and her connection to the PHM from the earliest days, as well as reporting her work to cultivate the PHM in Brazil, through the experience of forming groups in Nina Rodrigues and São Luís, in the state Maranhão, and encouraging the construction of the PHM in Belém, Pará.