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Completing her coursework online wasn’t enough for IU McKinney LL.M. student Bruna Neves. She wanted to do more. Indiana University’s response to COVID-19 mandated that students complete the Spring 2020 semester online, and Neves flew home to Brazil March 21 to do that. While she was home with her mother, Rosemary Simao de Freitas, the two elected to create face masks for the refugees and street people in their city.

Face masks quickly became scarce as the number of coronavirus cases ticked up in Brazil. Simao de Freitas is a nurse, but currently works as a seamstress. She decided to put her sewing skills to work and Neves elected to help her in that effort.

“Seeing that people were unable to protect themselves from the disease, we decided to produce cloth (tissue) masks and sell them,” Neves said. “With the money from the sales, part of the profit goes to produce more masks and donate them to poor people. Today, more than 500 masks have been donated.” she said.

Neves and her mother have given face masks to street people, religious charity institutions, and a group of about 80 Venezuelan refugees in the city of João Pessoa, in the state of Paraiba in Brazil.

Neves will resume her LLM studies in the American Law for Foreign Lawyers track in the Fall 2020 semester.

In the photo are Bruna Neves, left, and her mother, Rosemary Simao de Freitas. The pair makes and donates face masks for refugees and street people in João Pessoa, Paraiba, Brazil.