Renata Steffens
Archbishop João Justino visits AAVE “HIV remains a major global public health issue, having claimed an estimated 42.3 million lives to date,” reads the World Health Organization’s website.
In Brazil, the illness, at the time known as ‘gay plague’, was first diagnosed in men 1982, and in women the next year. By 1993, the number of infected was over 16,500 people. An Irish Sister in mission in Brazil, saw first-hand what AIDS was doing to people and “decided to do something about it”. Sr Margaret Hosty joined Divina de Fatima Nogueira Dias and established the AAVE Group in 1995.
The charity group supports those living with the virus, provide medication, courses, home/hospital visits, counselling, among other services. Some of the organisations the AAVE Group works in conjunction with are the Archdiocese of Goiânia, Misean Cara and Trócaire.
Sr Hosty is celebrating 40 years in Brazil in 2025 and received a Human Rights Award in 2023 for her work with those vulnerable people. The Irish Catholic talked with the Sister about her mission and work in Brazil, read the interview below.
Q: Could you talk a little about your first years of Vocation?
A: I entered the Sisters of St Louis in 1967. I didn’t have much contact with religious orders before I entered but one or two came to our school to talk about religious life. I don’t remember a thing they said. They were obviously doing Vocation promotion but it didn’t mean anything to me. I first met the Sisters of St Louis in 1964, in Balla, Co. Mayo, and I was impressed by them. They seemed so ordinary and down to earth, human…. and that attracted me. When I was in primary school our teacher prayed that Catholic missionaries would go to South America because the people there were being converted to evangelical religions! That sounded terrible to me (then!) as a child. I knew I wanted to go to Latin America as a missionary. As a Sister of St Louis, I got the opportunity.
Q: You moved to Brazil in 1985, as a native of Co. Roscommon, how was it to adapt to such a different environment? Not only weatherwise, but culturally, the language, the food…
A: Yes, I entered the Sisters of St Louis in California in 1967. At that time, we didn’t have a mission in Brazil so I thought if I go to North America I might get to South America sooner, easier! It was a big challenge for me to adapt to life in [the] US – weather, culture, food, education system and of course religious life. I attended university and trained as a teacher in Los Angeles, enjoyed teaching and made many friends. Our Sisters opened the first mission in Brazil in 1976 in the state of Tocantins in the centre-north of the country. I was finishing my degree at that time and not ready for a move. When in 1985 the opportunity came, I headed for Brazil. A big move indeed with many differences in comparison to [the] US.
Every culture has its challenges and it’s blessings… each one is holy ground”
The only thing that was about the same was the weather in Southern California and the weather in central Brazil! The Brazilian people are very welcoming and accepting. The language was a big challenge for the first two years but even when I made so many mistakes in speaking Portuguese, the people always made a great effort to understand me! After 40 years I still make mistakes in speaking Portuguese but the people don’t mind! Every culture has its challenges and it’s blessings… each one is holy ground. I love living and working in Brazil and have many good friends here.
Q: Please, tell me about these past 40 years, the projects you were involved in, and your achievements as a missionary.
A: The language was a big challenge at the beginning. I taught English in a public school for a few years and found this extremely difficult.
They were often exploited and treated unjustly so by forming a syndicate they were more assured of their rights”
Teaching in Catholic schools in LA where parents paid fees was very different from teaching in a public school in Goiânia, in Brazil. At one stage I thought of returning to LA where I felt I knew how to teach! Around this same time, I began to get involved with the washerwomen who were forming a syndicate. These were the times when families here didn’t have washing machines, when women washed and ironed other people’s clothes for a pittance. They were often exploited and treated unjustly so by forming a syndicate they were more assured of their rights. At the same time, I began to help in the local parish where there wasn’t a resident priest. We, [the] Sisters, did the Sunday Liturgy, marriages and baptisms. At the same time, we worked hard to train local leaders to take on these leadership positions.
Q: You are a co-founder of the AAVE Group. Please tell me about it, what it is, how it works, and its importance to the Brazilian community.
A: Through my work in the parish, I first came in contact with HIV/AIDS. A seminarian friend and fellow worker who contracted HIV at some stage, became seriously ill as he developed AIDS. That was in 1993 before life-saving medication for HIV/AIDS became available. I knew almost nothing about AIDS at the time, and from seeing the discrimination my friend suffered, I realised that so many others were also ill-informed, leading to fear and stigma for those with HIV/AIDS. After his death, I felt I needed to do something about this, and that was how I got into working with and for people living with HIV and AIDS and founded the AAVE Group.
The AAVE Group, www.grupoaave.org (which in English stands for: AIDS, Support, Life, Hope) works with people with HIV/AIDS and their families, providing psychological support and counselling, home and hospital visits, advice on their rights and legal entitlements, and training for income generating skills to help people who have lost their incomes due to HIV/AIDS to become more financially self-sufficient and provide for themselves and their families.
AAVE provides education regarding HIV/AIDS and its prevention in the community as we go to schools, church groups, factories, and door-to-door in poor and marginalised neighbourhoods to give correct information and to encourage early testing.
A third aspect of our work is Advocacy to protect and defend human rights. At times this means questioning and contesting public policies or challenging hospital administration. As human rights are often infringed or even denied, we affirm the right to health care, medication, among other human rights.
Q: In the past 40 years the numbers of infected dropped considerably and people dying from HIV related illness is rare nowadays. Is AAVE’s work still relevant/important today?
A: There aren’t the same numbers dying as a consequence of AIDS nowadays as there were in the 80s and 90s. Science and medicine have made great advances in health care to treat HIV. However, there still isn’t a vaccine available and there isn’t a cure. Nowadays, people are living with HIV, although in the past six months five seropositive people whom we have supported and accompanied for many years have died.
Those who live with HIV/AIDS are listed among the ‘nobodies’ of our society if they are poor, homosexual, black or belong to a minority group”
The federal government provides medication, but often at state and city government levels there are gaps/lags regarding treatment for opportunist infections. Every week AAVE has several requests from service users to buy medication or pay for exams which are urgent. We do what we can as we depend totally on donations for this aspect of our work. (Just last week we had to buy morphine for a poor black HIV positive woman who is dying).
What hasn’t improved is the stigma, condemnation, moral judgement and discrimination. These attitudes kill. Antônio Guterres, secretary general of the World Health Organization says that, if we are to end AIDS, no-one can be left behind. However, what we see in practice is that the poor are often left behind. Those who live with HIV/AIDS are listed among the ‘nobodies’ of our society if they are poor, homosexual, black or belong to a minority group.
Q: In 2023 you received a Human Rights Award, please, tell me more about it.
A: Yes, I received a Human Rights Award from the Legislative Assembly of the State of Goiás for my work to protect the human rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. Besides being pleased with the recognition I received, I was happy that our work at AAVE merited this award and that it got State recognition too. Previously in 2006 I received the Pedro Ludovico State Award also for my work in the defence of human rights of people of people living with HIV/AIDS.
Q: What’s for the future? Do you have new projects you are working on?
A: From the very beginning of my work with people living with HIV/AIDS and down through the years, I have been very conscious of people who are LGBTQIA+. I have listened to their pain, and I have ‘seen their wounds’ as it were. I have wanted to do something. The good news is that together with likeminded religious both men and women, laywomen and an Anglican minister we established a Christian Diversity Group and held our first meeting last month with people who are LGBTQIA+. We hope and pray that our work will bear fruit and give life and hope to many and that the prayer of Jesus in John 17:21, “That all may be one” will be furthered.
Q: Do you plan on moving back to Ireland at some point, or will you stay in Brazil?
A:Did my sister-in-law suggest this question? I’ve worked here for 40 years… 30 of them specifically with people who are poor and living with HIV; we’ve gotten a Christian Diversity group off the ground, and I’ll be 75 this year. One positive outcome from Covid is that we learned to work from a distance, so I am planning on continuing these works from a distance… living in Ireland as of 2026. No matter where I am I will always be motivated and influenced by Jesus’ words: “I have come that they may have life, life in abundance”, (Jn 10:10) and “That all may be one”, (Jn 17:21), which is also the motto of the St Louis Sisters.
I am very grateful to my family, to the Sisters of St Louis, to the many donors and to friends and colleagues for their constant care and support during all these years. Above all, I am grateful to God who has led me and is always with me. Thank you to The Irish Catholic for this opportunity to tell my story.
