Benedita da Silva,

Today, you see women in areas that were previously just for men. Women serve in the Brazilian Senate and in state government. I hope we'll have a woman president someday. Women are using their potential to create a country that is more just, less sexist, less racist, and that considers the citizen and his/her well-being as the pillar of the nation.

At this point, the black woman is at the bottom of Brazil's social pyramid. Above her is the black man, then the white woman, then the white man. If we hope to have equality between women and men, we must have faith. Spiritual strength is available to all who believe in it as a power for change. I know men and women who were lost — unemployed, without direction, without family — who found encouragement in spiritual strength. And they were transformed. I am a living witness of this. Spiritual power radically changed my life and enabled me to take part in government.

Reading the Bible has shown me that my ability comes from God. It shows me that women were not made to be submissive but were created for the glory of God. The Bible gives examples of women with important roles. Jesus was a friend of women and had great tenderness for them. I have “traveled” through the Bible, and when I look at my life, I see how the Bible has helped me overcome a lot. It has revealed what's inside me — the divine power, God, operating in my life. When I'm facing big difficulties, I talk to God. I invoke the tenderness and love of God as my companion, husband, and faithful friend.

I had a very difficult childhood, surrounded by crime and death. I felt what it meant to be poor and black. What we see today in the life of the street children were occurrences in my life. But, thank God, I was brought up in a family with hope and affection. So I was able to overcome. I felt spiritual help and the help of my family. Although I was a poor girl, I always had my parents' attention. And this enabled me to not follow the path of crime, as certain of my friends did.

I have great expectations for what we can do for young people in poor communities — for drug addicts, for children, for those forced into child prostitution. We need to work with a very spiritual vision to solve problems related to gender, ethnicity, economic development. It is with this vision that I accepted the challenge of being vice-governor, understanding that I would face discrimination, prejudice, and lack of vision that sees women as competitive beings taking jobs away from men — and not as daughters of God.

A working woman can't, however, stop being wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, companion. I reconcile these activities through my faith in God. When I have a problem in politics, I “run into the arms” of the Lord — and to my family. That's my way of uniting husband, children, and stepchildren with my faith in God.

Public service is part of my life. Yet I'm without political ambition. I don't seek fortunes. Losing or winning in elections is all the same to me. Basically, I'm a social worker and a civil servant. I'm at the service of the collective body, representing blacks, women, the poor, children, and those who live in shantytowns. I am a woman of God — transformed by God, who took me out of the “bottom of the well” and set me on my feet, with health. So, why not place all this vigor at the service of humanity?

I am absolutely certain that spirituality can help people find the true worth of womanhood. When we read the Bible, we realize that women have a mission. They have gifts from God. But women need to search out their true individuality. And spirituality helps very much in this. Spirituality gives us hope.