Sister Rosita Milesi stands inside the Catedral Metropolitana de Brasilia in the centre of Brazil’s capital. © UNHCR/Marina Calderon
Having dedicated her life to the refugee cause, Sister Rosita Milesi continues to shape and personify Brazil’s welcoming approach to people forced to flee
By Charlie Dunmore and Elisabet Diaz Sanmartin
When asked how a farmer’s daughter who became a Catholic nun ended up as one of Brazil’s most influential refugee advocates, Sister Rosita Milesi, 79, offers a simple answer: determination.
“I have always been a very determined person, ever since childhood. If I take something on, I will turn the world upside down to make it happen,” she said on a sultry afternoon in the northern Brazilian city of Boa Vista, where the organization she leads – the Migration and Human Rights Institute (IMDH) – supports refugees and migrants from neighbouring Venezuela and other countries.
For her decades-long commitment to supporting refugees and her leading role in shaping Brazil’s welcoming policies, Sister Rosita Milesi has been chosen as the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award’s 2024 Global Laureate.
Sister Rosita’s determination is not fueled by personal ambition but by a profound faith and commitment to helping others. These values were instilled from a young age by her Italian-speaking parents, who ended each working day by praying with their 11 children. Despite having little to spare, they also provided work, food and a bed to people in need who came asking.
At the age of 9, Rosita left the family home in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul to attend a nearby convent school run by the Scalabrinian Missionaries. The congregation was founded at the end of the 19th century to help Italian migrants arriving in the Americas, and while its work had since shifted away from its original focus, that founding mission would come to define Sister Rosita’s life and work.
After making her vows and becoming a nun in 1964 when she was just 19, Sister Rosita spent the next two decades working as a schoolteacher and hospital administrator in facilities run by the congregation to help the poor. During this time, her determination helped overcome reservations within the congregation when she applied to study law, eventually earning a Master’s degree.
Refugee champion
“When they asked me why I was taking this course, I would say: ‘I’m going to be a lawyer for the poor’, because that was our mission at that time – to help people in need. Refugees and migrants weren’t yet part of the picture,” she explained.
Her legal training ensured that when the Scalabrinians decided in the 1980s to return to their roots by helping refugees and migrants, Sister Rosita was the one entrusted with establishing a Migration Studies Centre in the capital, Brasilia.
“I knew little about the issues, but I had to prepare myself. So, I started studying the topic of displaced people and I decided to dedicate my knowledge to migrants and refugees,” she said.
Sister Rosita talks to Burundian refugee Halima Ali Mohamed (left) and Kenyan refugee Odette Ildunayezu (right) outside her office at the Institute for Migration and Human Rights (IMDH) in Brasilia. © UNHCR/Marina Calderon
Through this indirect path, a formidable refugee champion emerged. Her expertise and quiet powers of persuasion proved instrumental when Brazil’s draft Refugee Law was proposed in 1996. Sister Rosita rallied support to broaden the law’s definition of who is a refugee in line with the 1984 Cartagena Refugee Declaration, ensuring that many more people seeking international protection would be included in the adopted law in 1997. She achieved similarly impressive results during the adoption of Brazil’s Migration Law in 2017.
“Any law lasts many years. Good or bad, it’s hard to undo. So, we couldn’t let a limited law pass if there was a possibility to expand it,” she said of the 1997 legislation. “I even wrote to the Vatican in Rome, asking them to send a letter to the Brazilian government saying how important it was to expand the refugee concept. And they sent the letter, thank God.”
Luana Guimarães Medeiros, Director of the Department of Migration at the Brazilian Ministry of Justice and Public Security, underlined Sister Rosita’s “crucial role” in approving both pieces of legislation and her continued contribution as a close partner and adviser to the Ministry.
Sister Rosita meets Luana Guimarães Medeiros, Director of the Department of Migration, outside the Brazilian Ministry of Justice building in Brasilia. © UNHCR/Marina Calderon
“I could not think of anybody better…to receive this award.”
Luana Guimarães Medeiros, Director of the Department of Migration
“She’s a person who is always here – no matter which government is in power – to give good advice, realistic advice, concrete advice on how we can make things better in a very practical, humane and welcoming way,” Medeiros added. “I could not think of anybody better in Brazil – or maybe in the world – to receive this award because she has literally devoted her whole life’s work to the refugee cause.”
Hands-on role
In addition to her legal work, Sister Rosita coordinates a network of around 70 national organizations supporting refugees, migrants and local communities. She also sits on the National Committee for Refugees (CONARE) and the board of directors of the Scalabrinian Foundation, and has published scholarly articles on forced displacement and migration. “I’ve always had the ability to do three, four, five things at the same time,” she said matter-of-factly.
Above all, she is a committed and hands-on humanitarian. She and her teams at IMDH in Brasilia and Boa Vista work tirelessly to improve the lives of some of the 790,000 people in need of international protection in Brazil from 168 different countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Burkina Faso, Mali and Ukraine.
At the IMDH office in Boa Vista, Sister Rosita registers a young mother from Venezuela for a distribution of nutrition kits. © UNHCR/Marina Calderon
Like Sister Rosita herself, IMDH’s support is pragmatic and driven by refugees’ needs. With the backing of partners including UNHCR, IMDH helps mostly women, children and vulnerable groups with access to documentation, social assistance and formal employment. They also provide financial support and advice to help refugees grow their own businesses and distribute health and nutrition kits to mothers with young children.
Back in Brasilia, Casa Bom Samaritano is a large two-story building in a leafy suburb of the capital managed by partner organization AVSI Brazil, where up to 90 Venezuelans at a time can access accommodation, language lessons, vocational training and other support. Sister Rosita – instantly recognizable by her bob of snow-white hair – greets staff and residents by name, her kindly demeanour and natural inquisitiveness putting everyone at ease.
Elizabeth Tanare, 38, and her husband, lived there for several months after leaving Venezuela in 2023. She learned Portuguese and about personal finance before establishing her own massage therapy business with help from IMDH.
Elizabeth Tanare, 38, from Venezuela meets Sister Rosita in the garden of the Casa Bom Samaritano centre in Brasilia. © UNHCR/Marina Calderon
“She’s the piece of the puzzle that brings everything together.”
Elizabeth Tanare, 38
“Here they supported us, gave us guidance [and] after three months, we felt integrated into Brazilian society,” Tanare said. “Sister Rosita helped us with the purchase of equipment, including a massage table, so we could start work. She’s the piece of the puzzle that brings everything together, making links with other institutions, and she’s always in touch with everyone.”
Lifelong commitment
Sister Rosita agreed that her role is often to provide a focal point for others. “Many people don’t have the courage to start, but they are willing to support. So, someone needs to lead for us to unite forces,” she explained. “If there’s a human or humanitarian need, I’m not afraid to act, even if we don’t achieve everything we want.”
She also forms close personal bonds with many of the people she helps. Jana Alraee, a former teacher, arrived in Brasilia in 2014 with her engineer husband and three daughters after fleeing their home in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Having depleted their savings and unable to speak the language or find regular work, the family considered returning to Syria until a friend introduced them to Sister Rosita.
She found them a Portuguese teacher, helped them establish their now-flourishing Syrian catering business and, most importantly, became an ever-present friend and source of support to the family.
“When someone flees their country because of war, they leave everything behind, their family, mother, father – everyone. Then, when you meet someone like Sister Rosita with such a good heart, she gives you love, advice… I call her ‘Mother’, I don’t call her ‘Sister’, because she gives me what I miss,” said Alraee, clasping Sister Rosita’s hand in both of hers. “If I feel lost, she puts me back on the right path … she’s always with me, always.”
Jana Alraee embraces her friend Sister Rosita inside her family home in a residential neighbourhood of Brasilia. © UNHCR/Marina Calderon
Approaching her 80th birthday, Sister Rosita suggested with a wry smile that people assume she has no dreams left to pursue. If so, they misunderstand the lifelong nature of her commitment. She reeled off plans to boost access to education for refugee children, improve the recognition of refugee diplomas, and – following the devastation caused by recent flooding in her native Rio Grande do Sul – address the growing impact of climate change on refugees and displacement.
In other words, Sister Rosita will never stop dreaming of – and working for – a better future for refugees.
“We should always have a utopia because it shows us the horizon,” she said. “We never reach the horizon because as we advance, the horizon moves further away. But it points the way. Having a utopia, having a dream, having a conviction to build something better is fundamental. And it is fundamental for refugees.”
Originally published by UNHCR on 9 October 2024.
