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Eugenio Scannavino Neto: Health and Happiness

June 18, 2008

He could have been a chief surgeon in a big Sao Paulo hospital like his father, and rake in the cash. Eugenio Scannavino Neto did become a doctor ... in the Amazon Basin.

https://p.dw.com/p/EM61
Image: DW-TV

He took his doctor's bag from village to village, sometimes a two day trip along the river, so remote were the settlements. And he always treated the same illnesses: dysentery epidemics, caused by drinking the dirty river water. The malnourished children often failed to survive. But that was 15 years ago. Now Eugenio rarely works as a doctor; instead he runs his "Saude e Alegria", or "Health and Happiness" project, which has transformed the lives of more than 150 communities in the Santarem region. We joined the 49 year-old social entrepreneur.