Oswaldo Cruz Foundation

Hello! We are the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. That’s a long name, so many people in our home country of Brazil call us by our nickname, Fiocruz. We are a team of people who work in science and health. Our main purpose is to help everyone stay healthy and strong. To do this, we do many important jobs. We have scientists who study diseases to understand how they work and how to stop them. We also make special vaccines and medicines that help keep people from getting sick in the first place. Our goal is to help all the people in Brazil live healthier lives.

Our story began a long time ago, on May 25th, 1900. We were started in a beautiful city called Rio de Janeiro. The person who founded us was a very famous and smart scientist named Oswaldo Cruz. At that time, people in Brazil were facing big challenges with their health. There were serious diseases spreading, like yellow fever and smallpox. These sicknesses were making many people very ill, and it was a difficult time. Mr. Cruz knew that to solve this problem, a special group was needed to focus on science and find ways to fight these diseases. That’s why we were created. Our first big job was to face these illnesses and protect families.

One of the most important ways we learned to protect people was by making vaccines. You might have gotten a vaccine at the doctor's office before. Vaccines are special medicines that work in a very clever way. They help teach your body how to fight off germs before they can make you really sick. It’s like giving your body a secret instruction book for staying healthy. We were one of the very first groups in all of Brazil to make these helpful vaccines. It was a huge step forward in keeping communities safe and healthy.

We started by fighting just a few diseases, but our work has grown so much since then. Today, we make many different kinds of vaccines. Each one is designed to protect people from a different kind of germ. By making sure people can get these vaccines, we help stop sicknesses from spreading from person to person. This work helps children go to school, parents go to work, and everyone enjoy their lives without worrying so much about getting ill.

Even after all these years, we are still working hard every single day. Our team is bigger than ever! We have many scientists, doctors, and teachers who are all experts in health. They study new health problems that appear and look for new solutions. We also have our own hospitals where we take care of people who are sick, and we have schools where we teach the next generation of scientists and doctors. Our work is mostly in Brazil, but we also share what we learn with other countries. By working together, we can help make the whole world a healthier and safer place for everyone.