A brave girl from Itaberaí (Goiás) in 1983 slipped past the security of Brazilian President Figueiredo and handed him a letter requesting for a house for her mother, who was a domestic worker and unemployed.
The girls audacity led to the construction of the Valentina Figueiredo housing complex in João Pessoa, Paraíba, which is home to 22,000 residents and was named after the president’s mother.
One girl’s courage in 1983 turned into homes for 22,000 people. It shows how a president, like Figueiredo, could listen to a simple, honest request. A little girl’s courage built her mama a home. Proof that sometimes the smallest voices can echo the loudest, and change the shape of a city.