Mauricio De Souza

Mauricio de Sousa has been called the "Walt Disney of Brazil." But his mission is more than entertainment.His wildly popular "Monica" cartoons are also the perfect vehicle for conveying positive messages about health and life.

During the past 20 years, he has produced hundreds of "comics for a cause" on issues ranging from water and air pollution to hygiene, infant care, heart disease and smoking. For the Pan American Health Organization's annual World Health Day campaigns in 2003 and 2004, he produced special comic books on healthy environments for children and traffic safety. In April, "Monica's Gang" appeared in a special PAHO comic book for the 2004 Vaccination Week in the Americas. Mauricio's characters have also appeared in public service announcements aired globally as part of campaigns to fight drugs, combat dengue fever, and promote healthy motherhood.

For his work in communicating public health messages to children and adults, PAHO honored Mauricio as a "Champion of Health of the Americas" in 2003.

Mauricio's fictional brainchild was inspired by his second daughter, Monica, who today serves as his company's licensing director. The fictional Monica first appeared in 1963 in a newspaper cartoon strip based on the little-boy character Cebolinha, or "chive" in Portuguese. Monica quickly stole the scene, however, as the feisty, independent gang leader who defends her role against competing neighborhood boys. Monica's sidekicks include (in the English version) Jimmy Five (who pronounces his r's as w's), Smudge (Jimmy's bath-hating accomplice), and Maggy (Monica's sweet-tempered and sweet-toothed best friend).

Other Mauricio creations include Chuck Billy 'n Folks, a likeable bunch of country bumpkins; Tina and Pals, who live out the ups and downs of adolescence; and Horacio, an orphaned dinosaur who searches for answers to life's hardest questions (and who may be Mauricio's alter ego).

An enthusiastic environmentalist, Mauricio has also created two other comics series, "Lionel's Kingdom" and "The Amazonics," in which rainforest animals live in harmony with their environment and fend off threats to their well-being from the outside. "If children learn to love the rainforest animals now, in the future they will protect them," says Mauricio.

In all his work, Mauricio draws on his experience as the father of 10 children and his strong beliefs about the responsibilities of parenting. He believes children are "a carbon copy of their parents' behavior," so "it's up to the parents to be role models, an example and a reference for their kids," he says. "Parents have to show children the path to being a decent person, by guiding them but also respecting their independence and creativity. You have to pay attention to kids, learn what they're interested in and provide all the tools they'll need to grow intellectually and become self-confident, well-adjusted and happy human beings."