Brazilian volunteer group honors Covid-19 victims’ stories

On April 28, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro answered “so what” when asked about the rising Covid-19 death toll in Brazil. His nonchalance is reminiscent of the quip, often attributed to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, that “one death is a tragedy, but 1 million deaths is a statistic.” As confirmed coronavirus deaths reach five figures, journalists face a challenge not to let the victims — who leave behind families and friends — be left as mere statistics on a growing casualty list.

With this in mind, a group of volunteer journalists decided to join forces and try to tell the stories behind each number. 

The Inumeráveis project (innumerable) came together as a voluntary initiative proposed by social entrepreneur Rogério Oliveira and artist Edson Pavoni, as an attempt to build a digital memorial for the Brazilian victims of the pandemic. The aim is to provide a space for families to celebrate the lives of their loved ones, as journalist and volunteer Alana Rizzo describes. 

“It started in an organic way. The platform is quite simple because we wanted to focus on the stories. We want to show that these people are not statistics. And it felt really...