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Paper short abstract:

In Brazil, Candomblé religious communities represent alternative spaces of healthcare, through healing rituals, social actions directed to vulnerable groups as well as denounce of ethno/racial and gender inequalities in the public health system.

Paper long abstract:

Based on an ethnographic study, I analyse how Candomblé communities develop forms of care, healing and assistance directed to their members (mostly Black and poor people, living in urban peripheries) and vulnerable groups, often filling the gaps and inefficiency of the Public Health System.

In Candomblé communities, preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic methods based on traditional African knowledge are employed, often in combination with herbal medicines, traditional medicines, alternative and complementary medicines, biomedicine and other religious treatments. Children, the elderly and people with disabilities are cared for, welcomed and protected. In case of health problems, the community gathers around the suffering person, making him/her feel its support, and offering advice and help.

The impacts of socioeconomic, ethno/racial, geographic and gender inequalities on health, vulnerability to certain diseases (such as HIV/AIDS and the Covid-19 pandemic) and the lack of public policies directed to treat health issues that affect specific groups (especially Black people) are denounced and made object of social actions, often in collaboration with the Public Health System, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, associations and social movements.

Candomblé communities reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic with campaigns of information, actions for preventing contagion and protect the most vulnerable, offering health, psychologic, spiritual, legal and economic assistance to the needy, while also denouncing the relationships between racism and vulnerability to Covid-19.