Brazil: Promises of the River

Amazonia is vast and unforgiving. Along its rivers, riberinhos risk their lives clinging to speeding boats, selling jungle snacks for pennies. Many are children. Families survive on what they earn. Jesse was one of them—14 years old, raised on the water, driven to crime by poverty. Deep in the forest, a single gold nugget at Eldorado do Juma ignited a modern gold rush. Thousands poured in, chasing dreams.