Heroes of Unmasked — Clarissa Paz
Our new series, “Heroes of Unmasked,” hopes to highlight the characters and other individuals involved in this project in ways that animate their unique stories, detail their individual journeys, and surface their memories prior to our team coming together to bring Unmasked to life. Each week, we plan to feature a different individual involved in the making of Unmasked and share his/her story.
Clarissa Paz — on finding Fraternity Without Borders, turning a vision into a project on the ground in Malawi, building a family, and her next chapter:
“Before any of this began, I had dreams–dreams to build, to have a project, and to help people. The dream came true in my first week back at home in Brazil after having spent time in Malawi. My mother saw on the television something about Fraternity Without Borders, and asked me if I knew anything about it.
A friend from Malawi had also called me and asked the same question. After that, a woman who had seen me on a TV interview in Brazil found me on Facebook and asked me to breakfast before she was leaving for Portugal later that day–she was working with an NGO to send clothes to Africa. So I went to that breakfast, thinking we were going to find a way to send clothes to the refugee camp. But when she came, she gave me a paper. She wrote in the paper ‘Wagner — Fraternity Without Borders’ and his phone number. And she said, ‘I don’t know why, but I need to give you this number. I saw your story and I know this organization, and I am sure that what you need is to work together with them. You need to find Fraternity Without Borders.’ On that day, I’m not joking, I looked down at the paper, remembered both my mother and my friend, and just looked up to the sky and said ‘God, okay, I am going to find Fraternity Without Borders.’
––So I did. After talking with the founder, Wagner Moura, he asked me to come to Mozambique to work for two years before going back to Malawi with him to look at starting our project. I had no options, so I accepted. But the good story is that I only stayed in Mozambique for three days before he decided to meet Malawi and truly understand the place I had so much love for. It became a dream come true. After he came to Malawi that week, Fraternity Without Borders embraced us, and we were able to start this beautiful project (Ubuntu Nation) together.
I don’t believe in coincidence; I think everything is provided by God. I found someone (Wagner) who does the same thing that I want to do in life–that is to serve the community, that is to work for others, that is to try to improve as a human being. I also believe that the whole world is our family–we are all brothers and sisters. We are the ones who create borders. Now that I have my baby, it’s so special because I feel that I am showing him my family here in Africa. I think it’s very special for him to have this opportunity to live in Africa, and I believe his life is going to be nice because of all the lessons I have been learning here.
When I was pregnant, I Googled ‘African names.’ About 50 names appeared, so I started reading them one by one to my husband. I read like 30 names, and he kept saying no to all of them. When I read ‘Ayan,’ he said, ‘Yes, this is the one. Ayan.’ And when I clicked to see the meaning of the name, it read, ‘Gift from God.’ ‘Gift from God’ is on my wedding ring–when we got married, we engraved this message on the inside of my ring. At that moment, I said I think God has decided for us; that’s why his name is Ayan. Like I said, I wanted an African name, and Ayan is a name very common in Somalia. He is a present from God for me, my husband, and everyone in the community.
Wagner used to say that we are going to grow when we are ready to grow. I hope we are ready to grow, and serve where the needs are. But most of all, I hope more people from outside of Africa can come here. To learn, to understand, and to see. To live and feel what we are saying. To feel the culture and the love. To feel fraternity.”
Clarissa and Wagner, now married, plan to soon grow their family to a beautiful band of 21 kids. They hope to adopt 20 orphaned kids at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp and begin work to build a home for them very soon.
To view more pictures of Clarissa and her family, visit our Instagram @unmasked.film.
