Today was an extraordinary day for People to People in Brazil.
Many of you may have heard about the recent tragic school shooting that occurred in Rio de Janeiro on April 7th, the first such incident to ever happen in Brazil. 12 students were killed and 20 wounded in the shooting, which was committed by a 23 year old male who was heavily bullied in his school years.
Coincidentally, a People to People Citizen Ambassador delegation of 10 Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists and Psychologists and their guests arrived in Brazil on April 10th. As it turns out, one of our delegates, Dr. Timothy Brewerton is somewhat of a specialist in school shootings – he has presented on the topic numerous times in various settings, and is educated on not only such incidents occurring in the U.S., but worldwide. On arrival in-country the delegation leader, Dr. Tom Anders realized the importance of Dr. Brewerton’s expertise and asked if he’d like to make a presentation to the staff and faculty at the Sacred House of Mercy Hospital in Rio de Janeiro during one of the already scheduled professional meetings. He accepted, and the hospital was notified.
Rio is not new to violence, however as this type of tragedy was really the first of its kind in Brazil, the event captivated Brazil’s media, so the hospital staff, who were very excited for the opportunity to hear Dr. Brewerton present notified the largest, and most trusted media source in Brazil, OGlobo. OGlobo notified the public of the upcoming visit in their newspaper, then planned to attend the presentation as well as conduct a formal interview with Dr. Brewerton afterward to be televised the same evening.
All of this did, indeed come to fruition, and excitingly, many competitor networks got hold of the story and showed up at the hospital as well (TV, print and radio). Since Dr. Brewerton could not be available to give them all interviews at the hospital, the press pursued the delegation to a “favela” community visit that was part of the programming and followed the delegation during the visit hoping for a few words from him. We were able to accommodate another 15 minute interview with 5 different press outlets at the community NGO – this was great press for the NGO (known as AfroReggae) as well as People to People, as Dr. Brewerton’s presence so soon after the tragedy was coincidental, if not serendipitous.
Here is a link to the coverage of the first formal interview Dr. Brewerton gave to OGlobo (of course it is all in Portuguese, but easy enough to get the gist of).
We’re very hopeful that the information Dr. Brewerton provided to the Psychiatry faculty and staff at the Sacred House of Mercy Hospital is useful in preventing future tragedies, and we’re very excited to have been a part in such an important exchange of knowledge.
