FMT in partnership with The Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT) brings you Covid-19 “healers” from Portugal.
Joaquina went through this pandemic in addition to the two great wars.
Today, this woman is going through, unscathed, once again, the new disease that is plaguing humanity. There are 105 years worth of stories that she no longer wants to tell.
The words, weakened by time, are confused with the air of the fragile lungs. Each word is a small breath, so the proximity of Andreia and nurse Filipe is the only way to be able to speak and hear her.
Meanwhile, Laura Lima and Joana Rodrigues work every day on the streets of Praia da Vitória, on Terceira Island in the Azores, caring for people who need help.
Covid-19 have made them more than co-workers to become companions and friends. Laura, 25, has worked with the elderly community for five years; Joana, 21, joined the team in a pensioner’s centre last year.
Another nurse, Renato, 31, has worked on the Island’s main hospital for ten years. For the first time, he admits he is scared.
His teams provided dedicated assistance to Covid-19 patients at the Hospital de Santo Espírito, in Angra do Heroísmo.
His wife, Catarina, works as a nurse in the same hospital. They both chose this profession to help people. They work in alternate shifts, with the other taking care of Alice, their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
Rui Caria was born in Nazaré in 1972. His career began in 1990, producing commercials. In 1993, he became a correspondent for a national television channel, TVI, where he remained as a camera news reporter and editor until 2003. In 2005, he moved to Terceira Island in the Azores, and was a reporter and correspondent image editor in the Azores region for a national TV channel, SIC. His photographic works have been featured in National Geographic, 1x, Leica Fotografie International, Getty Images, among others. In 2016, Rui won the silver camera in photojournalism, by FEP – Federation of European Photographers, in the European photographer category and won the first prize at the Sony World Photography Awards, National Awards. View his portfolio here.
‘The Other Hundred Healers’ is an initiative by the non-profit organisation GIFT. The 240-page, full-colour, hardcover book can be purchased here at US$40 per copy for a minimum order of 20 copies.
