Luana Souza serves as the technical advisor for the Programa de Saúde da Mulher Negra(Black Women’s Health Program) at Odara-Instituto da Mulher Negra. The Program aims to conduct training cycles with Black women, youth, and LGBTQ+ individuals to advocate for the right to health, sexual and reproductive rights, and self-care. It has promoted meetings with LGBTQ+ human rights defenders from all five regions of Brazil to develop collective strategies for care, health, and safety, as well as to strengthen advocacy around the health agenda. It has also promoted discussions with groups of Black women and youth from peripheral communities in Salvador.
The Program also works on Participation and Social Control of Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS) and on strategies to address obstetric violence and maternal mortality; criminalization and insecurity of abortion; menstrual poverty; and lesbophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in the health system, especially in the Northeast Region of Brazil. Luana has a Master’s degree in Linguistic Studies from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and is a PhD candidate in Linguistics at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP).
Video Interview with Luana Souza
In this video, Luana Souza, technical advisor for the Programa de Saúde da Mulher Negra (Black Women’s Health Program) at Odara-Instituto da Mulher Negra, shared what reparation and good living mean to her as a global mandate for justice, solidarity, and freedom for Black women in Brazil and beyond.
