Every year, hundreds of buses are targets of arson in Brazil. The purpose of such vandalism is to draw awareness and attention to a protest or grievance. However, such practice results in serious consequences for innocent people who have nothing to do with the issue. The names and stories of drivers and passengers who are hurt or even killed in such incidents are often forgotten by society and they end up becoming just a statistic or number. For example, take the case of bus driver Jefferson Alves da Silva, who suffered burns to part of his body as he heroically saved a handicapped passenger from flames.
In Brazil, all vehicles leave the assembly line stamped with a large identification number, and our idea was to stop putting numbers on the busses and instead give names to these vehicles. Specifically, the names of people who were injured or killed in attacks of this nature.
Our movement gained momentum and voice as TV channels, news broadcasts, and blogs written by major journalists began to discuss the subject -- quoting our campaign, using people’s specific stories, and drawing attention not to the bus, but to the people inside of them.The result surpassed expectations and the project was embraced by public authorities, which are, in partnership with Mercedes-Benz, studying the possibility of expanding the honors by creating a name-only bus fleet in São Paulo, the largest city in Latin America. This is a campaign that resulted in articles, comments and discussions, and became a subject that engaged, touched and provoked a social debate about this type of conduct.