Antônia Melo

Antônia Melo da Silva (born 1949) is a Brazilian human rights activist and environmentalist. In 2017, she was given the Alexander Soros Foundation Award for Environmental and Human Rights Activism. It was because she was leading campaigns against the construction of the Belo Monte Dam and other environmentally harmful projects in the Amazon rainforest.
Biography.
Melo was born in Piripiri, Piauí, in 1949. Antônia Melo da Silva was brought up by peasant parents. She was taught the importance of fighting for their land and their rights. In 1953, she and her family moved to Altamira, Pará. They settled in Conceição do Araguaia on the banks of the Xingu River. On that river bank, her parents developed a successful farm. In 1959, she attended a religious school. She was trained to be a teacher.
In 1970, she married and moved to a house in Altamira. She raised a family of four children while working as a teacher. From the late 1980s, she became active in a number of organizations founded. She protected the rights of the indigenous people living in the area. She was campaigning against the construction of the Belo Monte Dam. In May 2008, she was a co-founder of the Movimento Xingu Vivo Para Sempre. She fought against the construction of the dam and the related hydroelectric project. Over the years, the movement combined social and environmental organizations with communities along the river including fishermen, agricultural workers, town dwellers, native peoples and religious and women's organizations.
Despite her campaigning, the Belo Monte Dam was built and Melo had to move out of her home. But she has since become involved in many similar movements. She has been able to face plans for the construction of a huge dam on the . In honour of Antônia Melo with the Foundation Award, Alexander Soros commented: "She is one of the heroes of the environmental and human rights movement, and I can't think of anyone who deserves the Alexander Soros Foundation Award more than she does."