Brazil: Public Health and Community Welfare

Beginning Spring 2010, this program will be titled:

Brazil: Public Health, Race, and Human Rights


Program Overview


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In the SIT Brazil: Public Health and Community Welfare study abroad program, students examine emerging health care issues in Brazil, particularly those related to the country's African Diaspora population which comprises approximately 50 percent of Brazil's population. Sharply focused on issues of access and inclusion, the program examines Brazil's health care system in the context of institutionalized racism, poverty, and social exclusion. Particular attention is spent studying traditional Afro Brazilian healing practices, especially those rooted in the Candomblé spiritual belief system, on which many rural and urban communities still rely. 

Utilizing SIT's extensive in-country networks, students interact with and learn from a wide array of academic, professional, and community experts. These include physicians and nurses, government health officials, political activists, international NGOs, multilateral agencies such as the United Nations, urban and rural residents, herbalists, and Candomblé healers in the Brazilian northeast. Students gain a nuanced understanding of the health care policies and realities in the region while simultaneously improving their Portuguese language skills. Multiple homestay experiences with Brazilian families from very different socioeconomic backgrounds illustrate to program participants the vast differences in Brazilian daily life.

Care Across Communities
Brazil is the most populous Latin American country and home to the world's largest African Diaspora community. While the country's public health policies have achieved success on several issues, including in AIDS prevention, the health care needs of its most impoverished people currently are not being met. As a result, Brazil's government has sought innovative approaches to reach its underprivileged citizens. Many Afro Brazilians and other Brazilian communities in the periphery also have developed alternative health care methods that often draw upon spiritual practices and natural remedies.

The Brazil: Public Health and Community Welfare program is based in Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia and the largest city in the Brazilian northeast. Of Salvador's 2.8 million residents, approximately 80 percent are of African descent, making Salvador an ideal base from which to explore issues of public health, community welfare, and social justice. Students also have educational excursions to rural communities outside Salvador where they engage in health care projects beneficial to local community members.

Browse this program's Independent Study Projects/Undergraduate Research