Dorothy Stang
1931-2005 20th century
Staying on the side of the most exposed when staying costs.
Who was Dorothy Stang?
An American sister of Notre Dame de Namur, she spent forty years in the Brazilian Amazon alongside small farmers, defending their right to the land and to the forest that fed them. Under death threats for years, she refused any escort. One morning on a dirt road two armed men were waiting; she read them the Beatitudes before she fell.
In their own words
The death of the forest is the end of our life.
I do not want to flee, nor to abandon the struggle of these farmers who live without any protection in the forest.
They have the sacrosanct right to aspire to a better life on land where they can live and work with dignity.