O Abrigo São Francisco em Anápolis (1930 até os dias atuais): história e originalidade de sua construção

Abstract

Leprosy is an infectious and chronic disease that affects people of all ages, and in most cases diagnosed, the disease is among the most economically deprived populations. The history of leprosy is circumscribed under rejection, superstition and intolerance, because it has a terrifying image in the memory of humanity. There are many factors associated with the disease, and its path comes from a long time and permeates biological, economic, social and political issues. Moreover, the social exclusion caused by stigma, existing since ancient times, and, in the twentieth century, reinforced by sanitary policies with a segregationist character, becomes one of the greatest challenges for patients with this disease.In view of this, this work reconstitutes the history of the leprosarium of Annapolis, making literary review of the theme and bibliographic research, in an analysis based on dialectical historical materialism, on the presence of religious institutions and their contribution to leprosians, as well as the verification of how stigma has become the basis of the relations between the community in question and the society in which it is inserted. In addition to historical analysis, the perspective of Health Geography is of great interest to this work, because this area of knowledge addresses the dynamics of space in several categories, and the territory is an element in the understanding of anthropic action and socio-spatial distribution.Thus, the approach of Health Geography becomes preeminent in the construction of the history of the São Francisco Home, in the understanding of the distinct paths that the shelter has traveled, compared to the trajectory of other lepers in Brazil, in the understanding of the spatial dynamics of segregation, covering the totality of the aspects that infer in its physical construction, in its course and in the symbolic constitution of the stigma surrounding the disease, patients and the place where it is situated, i.e. in the dialectical analyses to which this work is engaged. The understanding of the history of the shelter, covering the political and religious context along with the contribution of the Geography of health, aroused interest about the formation of the institution, present, from the beginning, in the improvements of local society and religious entities and, at the same time, following the paths of prejudice and stigma. In view of the above, the central questioning that guides the research turns to the understanding of the importance of the original character of the construction of the Leprosarium of Anápolis-Goiás, of the sanitary development of the space occupied by it, favoring the chaining of factors that linked the disease to the process of socio-spatial segregation and perpetuated the stigma. Nevertheless, research also turns to other issues related to stigma and its bond with religious institutions and society in the context of the obstacles faced in the constitution of the shelter, and the elements that give identity to the communities established around them, within the political and spatial sphere. Thus, the objectives include the identification of the aspects that provide under the unprecedented essence of their formation; of the connection with religious entities and society, and that externalizes the stigma; and the impacts on the leprosy community caused by the political factor, also using geographical concepts in the understanding of spatial segregation. Therefore, the investigation adopts the time frame from 1930 to the present day, that is, the beginning of the constitution of the São Francisco Home; the path of the Leprosy who helped in its constitution; the development of its history; its institutionalization, composing the Leprosy Reintegration Movement (MORHAN), to this day.