It is with deep sadness that Richard and Margot announce the untimely death of our friend and partner, Nanko van Buuren, who died unexpectedly on February 14, in Rio de Janeiro.

How Nanko Came to be in Brazil

In 1985, humanitarian Dr. Nanko van Buuren, a psychiatrist with the World Health Organization (WHO), was sent to Rio to report on the brutal assassination of street children by police. Devastated by what he had witnessed, Nanko filed his report having determined to return to Rio and dedicate his life to improving the lives of young people in the favelas.

Nanko Establishes the IBISS Foundation

In 1987, he founded IBISS (Brazilian Institute of Innovation in Social Health) to “rescue” youngsters from exploitation by drug lords. Since then he has rescued a total of over 4,400 young men and women and rehabilitated many of them into society by employing them in his own organization as project managers. Nanko worked in the city’s most violent favelas (slums) to develop long-term, community-engaged responses to social conflict, organized crime, poverty and the loss of hope. Remarkably, through his tireless commitment he has managed to establish working relationships with both the government and dozens of favela communities and to work simultaneously in territories controlled by cartels at war with one another. His ongoing struggle to establish relationships between the favela communities and the broader society and communities divided by conflict has profoundly improved the lives of thousands of young Brazilians. For his commitment and service to humanity Nanko received the equivalent of a Knighthood from the Queen of Holland in 2007 and the Desmond Tutu Reconciliation Fellowship in 2012, an honor shared with only seven others worldwide. He was much loved and revered throughout the favela communities of Rio and was known as o Patrão, a title somewhere between “boss” and “godfather”.

BRAYCE Partners with IBISS Foundation

Richard and Margot first met Nanko in 2005 and established a partnership between BRAYCE and IBISS. Since then, Nanko has been a board member for our organization continuing to be an inspirational force and focus for our work with favela youth.

It is impossible to appreciate the impact and reach of his death. Although The IBISS Foundation will continue its work with Nanko’s principals, no-one will ever replace that unique and extraordinary man Richard and I are proud to have called our friend.

Chester, 2015