By Mária de Fátima Fernandes Vara, Karina Kulig, Deborah Vons
It all started when Fátima Fernandes was introduced to Deborah Vons. Fatima, Physiotherapist and Physical Educator, was working in the international area of canoeing, and already knew about breast cancer dragon boating and wanted to work with women who had undergone breast cancer treatment.
On the other hand, Deborah, a survivor of two breast cancers, was already practicing canoeing and also knew of BCS paddling. The impact of canoeing was so significant (positively) on her body that it encouraged her to want to share it with other women, encouraging them to go canoeing, which gave rise to the REMANDO PARA VIDA Project. From a first meeting, a small nucleus was formed, which has been growing gradually in numbers of women canoeing, Dragon Boat modality. Today we are 18 members.
This initiative culminated in the formation of the team and its recent affiliation with the International Breast Cancer Paddlers’Commission.
In October 2019, we held the “JUNTASSOMOSMAIS” event, where we presented the name and logo of the CANOHÁ DRAGON TEAM CURITIBA Team. In the following month, November, the captain - Deborah Vons, joined the Brazilian delegation representing the CANOHÁ team, for the participation of the 1st “Encuentro Latinoamérica in Rosa”, 2019, Neuquen, Argentina. We have acquired the Dragon through our own resources and we are awaiting its arrival in Curitiba - Paraná - Brazil. Our activities take place at the Passauna Dam, Curitiba-Paraná-Brazil. We also have the institutional support of the Passauna Paddle Club for our activities, in and out of the water.