Milena Oliveira de Medeiros, a woman from the state of Acre, located in the southwest of Brazil’s north, always liked to travel, says her mother, Raimunda, after flipping through the newspaper that her daughter wrote about her visit to Cuba in 2006.
Starting in 2009, visiting new places became part Milena’s job. She became a diplomat.
Born in the city of Rio Branco, she entered the Federal University of Acre at the age of 17. In the two years following graduation, she worked as a lawyer and was stenographer of the Legislative Assembly. But she gave up everything because of a passion: music. She played guitar, violin, flute and keyboard. In 2000, she moved to the capital city of Brasília, where he studied music at University of Brasília.
She graduated again in 2007 and decided to study for the Rio Branco Institute. She won a scholarship reserved for black students who wanted to pursue a diplomatic career, but shortly after she was approved for the course. Through Itamaraty (the Foreign Ministry), she traveled to Argentina, Peru and South Korea, her mother said.
In November, she made her first visit to Africa, going to work for Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea. Milena had just set up in her apartment in Brasilia a photo lab for the magnification of photos, another passion of hers. She didn’t have time to enjoy it.
She returned from her trip in late November. On the 10th of this month, she was admitted to a hospital with discomfort, a fever and mental confusion. In the beginning, was suspected that she had contracted dengue. It turned out to be was malaria was transmitted by a mosquito bite. On the 16th, she was pronounced brain dead.
Milena died on December 26th at the age of 35. The funeral was held on December 28th in Acre.
“The secretary Milena Oliveira de Medeiros always performed her duties with great dedication and a sense of duty. Her passing, which abbreviates a promising career prematurely, is deeply felt by all her friends and colleagues”, read a brief statement issued from the Itamaraty.
* – Dengue fever is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus and spread by mosquitoes. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles. Dengue fever begins with a sudden high fever, often as high as 104 – 105 degrees Fahrenheit, 4 to 7 days after the infection.
Source: Black Women of Brazil
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