• To learn more about the Smile Brazil program click here

• Program to rescue the self-esteem of the population

For those who were unable to afford the services of a private dentist, the only semblance of the country's oral health policy was the indiscriminate use of forceps, the feared pliers used for pulling teeth.

Hoje, em 5.346 municípios brasileiros (96% do total), os primeiros sintomas de qualquer doença põem para funcionar uma cadeia de cuidados que tem seu primeiro elo nos 257,9 mil agentes comunitários, integrantes das 34.715 equipes de Saúde da Família que contam também com médicos e enfermeiros. O programa tornou-se o pilar da reorganização da Atenção Básica. Ficaram na literatura ou nas fotografias de arquivo dos jornais as imagens do passado, com crianças famintas, esvaindo-se em diarreias mortais, sem que a mãe pudesse ou soubesse o que fazer.

Most oral health program in the world, Smile Brazil benefiting 80 million
 

Government confronts conservative opposition and strengthens the SUS

Maria Helena, Community Health Agent, Igarassu/PE

"My job is to get information to the population. I check the kids’ cards to see if their vaccinations are up to date, I talk to every woman who is pregnant, with the elderly who sometimes are in bed in need of a medication or the care of a doctor during a home visit. This is the work of a health agent. We work in prevention. "

Jailson Barbosa, retired, Salvador/BA

"I had a pre-infarction and these free medicines are helping a lot. They’re already facilitating. They cost R$ 6.90 here. I’ve already saved R$ 4.00 because if I were in another pharmacy would have spend more than R$ 10.00. That money goes toward something else."

Marsália Xavier (GO) The best present that…

"It does no good to have a good house, a good car, earn well if your health is poor. Without health you can’t eat, work, you can’t even live. I think life is health. I think the best gift that government is bringing us is health."

"What we want with this is to solve an emergency and an urgent problem, because people’s health can not wait for doctors to be trained. Hence, we are bringing in doctors from abroad. Simultaneously, we are going to increase the training of doctors in Brazil, ensuring they are trained to work in the interior of the country and on the outskirts of big cities."

"When in 2007 they overthrew the CPMF, it was an act of insanity of [the PSDB] against my government. They did this thinking it would hurt me in 2007. It was a CPMF fee of 0.38% on every check people wrote. And they did this not because of the amount. They did it to the CPMF because it allowed us to monitor and prevent tax evasion ... What was the idea? We’ll hurt Lula. He’s going to fail. Well, it was they who failed because I finished my term with an 87% good and excellent rating. Who did they hurt? The people."