Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro awarded the Medal of Victory from the Ministry of Defense to Captain Marcia Andrade Braga, an officer of the Brazilian Navy. She is a member of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) and received the UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year award for her efforts as a military advisor on gender issues.
The mission began in April 2014 to protect civilians in the Central African Republic from the violent civil war that plagues the country. Active in the mission since April 2018, Braga helped build a network of trained advisors for gender-related issues in military units.
Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva thanked Marcia “for being an example to inspire women who fight, for filling Brazilians with pride, and for confirming that the presence of women in the Armed Forces makes us 
better.”
“The UN award goes beyond recognizing achievements. It reflects the confidence of a woman who was exposed to a hostile environment, based on the belief in what she was capable of.” “It is an important achievement on the path to valuing and enhancing the military competence of women,” he argued.
Throughout the 70 years of the UN’s existence, the minister said, about 46,000 Brazilian civilians and military personnel have worn the characteristic blue helmet of peacekeeping missions in 41 of the 71 peacekeeping missions launched under the UN flag. Brazil has led five of them, in Egypt, Mozambique, Angola, East Timor, and Haiti.
Today, the country leads the military mission in Congo and has mobilized 300 people in nine of the 14 missions carried out by the UN peacekeeping operations department, with troops or observers.