Academic Jeconias Vieira Lopes Neto was born in Bahia and raised in Cidade Satélite do Areal, on the outskirts of Brasília. For five years he studied at Universidad Adventista del Plata in Argentina, where he graduated in Theology. Soon after his graduation in 2017, he was invited by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Brasília to take over the general directorship of ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency), the church's social arm worldwide, present in 114 countries, partnering for human development. In the same year, 2017, in which he took over the agency, he was named UN Youth Ambassador, traveling Brazil and the world representing youth on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and advocating for issues related to Brazilian juvenile rehabilitation.
Jeconias himself was once in the juvenile justice system, having served socio-educational measures during his adolescence for being in conflict with the law, but for years now he has shown everyone that it is possible to be rehabilitated and to help rehabilitate others. To this end, he founded the Adventist Prison Ministry within the church, which today serves 33 prison units in the Federal District and Goiás, with more than 350 active chaplains, making it the largest rehabilitation movement for inmates in the region. The Prison Ministry has already reached 9 Brazilian states, Argentina, and Ecuador. Jeconias is an ordinary citizen who lives out extraordinary things on behalf of Brazilian youth today.
