Page 57 - EarthHeroes

her mother died of meningitis. Despite her grief, Marina had no choice but to work harder and help take care of her younger siblings. In those dark days, she dreamed of another life. She wanted to go to school and become a nun as she believed this would make her strong enough to cope with her
suffering and sadness.
When Marina was 16, she became ill with hepatitis and had to go to Rio Branco for hospital treatment. While there, she stayed with relatives and, to her surprise, her father agreed to her remaining in the city after she had recovered. Marina got a job as
a maid and also went to school for the
first time, where she worked hard to cram four years of primary school education
into one and became one of the first in
her family to read and write. After this, she joined a convent in order to follow her dream of becoming a nun, and started high school. It was during that time that she met Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper who was fighting for communities in the seringal.
Through her friendship with Chico, she saw how the
development of her region was damaging her beloved rainforest without helping the people who lived there. As well as being cut down for ranches and timber, the forest was being cleared for mining and growing soya to feed cattle, but this was only benefiting a few rich people. She was inspired by Chico’s efforts and also by stories of great leaders, like Mahatma Gandhi. As a child, she would never have imagined that she, a poor rubber tapper’s daughter, could become a student, but now that she had, she thought everyone should have the same opportunities. She no longer wanted to be a nun; she would use her education to improve the lives of the poor and fight for the rainforest.
Marina went on to study history at university, after which she got a job working with Chico. They set up a rubber tappers’ union, to bring workers together
to speak with one voice in negotiations with their employers. Inspired by the reserves where some of the Indigenous peoples of the rainforest lived, they had the idea that there should also be ‘extractive reserves’ – protected areas of forest for people who made their living by extracting rubber, nuts and medicinal
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