Zilda Arns

Biography

Zilda Arns Neumann was a Brazilian pediatrician, public health physician, and humanitarian worker. She graduated with a degree in medicine from the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) and specialized in public health, pediatrics, and sanitary administration. Her early career involved managing public healthcare programs in the state of Paraná, where she directed the Maternal and Child Health Division of the State Department of Health and implemented preventive policies to lower infant mortality rates.Arns achieved national and international institutional recognition when she founded the Pastoral da Criança (Pastoral of the Child) in 1983 alongside Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, operating under the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB). She designed and structured community-based health networks that focused on nutritional guidance, basic hygiene education, and oral rehydration therapy, expanding the program across thousands of Brazilian municipalities and multiple countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In 2004, she established the Pastoral da Pessoa Idosa (Pastoral of the Elderly). She died during an earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, while on an international mission to structure local child-care programs.