During his childhood he traveled about eight kilometers on foot to go to school. And sometimes he came to class without even having a notebook or a pencil.
Janilson Silva dos Anjos grew up in the indigenous community Sateré-Mawé and, to be able to study, he learned very soon that every little step had a cost.
He sold bananas, flour and fish to buy the school material.
It was not just a matter of poverty.
Behind that effort there was already a precise goal, born of something that had seen too close: an uncle had faced cancer and a sister had faced a rare disease of blood. Those experiences helped bring about the desire to study medicine and, one day, to help their community.
So that child walking miles to the school began to imagine on the other side of that reality.
Not only as someone looking for help, but as the person who one day would be able to offer it.
At age 29, his name appeared where he had hoped to see him for so long: first in the selection for Medicine at the Universidade Federal do Pará, on the Altamira campus, through the selection process reserved for indigenous candidates.
Today Janilson studies to become a doctor.
The most significant part of its history, however, is not only the result obtained.
It's the path that brought him there.
Eight miles on foot.
The notebooks you bought selling what you had at your disposal.
The difficulties faced by his family.
And the idea that the lack of something can turn, sometimes, into the strongest reason to try to build just what is missing.
Janilson is studying to become a doctor who can take care of people and also help the community from which he comes.
If we could show the child walking to the school where he would arrive, maybe they wouldn't need a lot of words.
Just tell him to keep walking.