Building
Boats to Transform Communities
With a boat specially developed by Vento em Popa, simple and inexpensive, the Saracura Project offers sailing lessons and naval carpentry techniques to youngsters of low income communities in the south area of São Paulo, Brazil. At the same time, it provides professionalizing training and creates an environmental consciousness through the conservation and revitalizing of the city’s greatest water supply, the Billings Lake.
The Project
The
boats built by community members become part of the Nautical Centre created at
the Billings Lake margins and are used in regattas and school activities,
companies and general public.
To take care of all that, the youngsters go through a two and a half years long instruction composed of 3 modules which is conducted through partnerships with other organizations and corporate sponsorships.
They
therefore actively participate in the maintenance and management of a space
created to offer entertainment and education to their community, promoting its
nautical potential and generating human and economical development.
The students also organize events with volunteers to help cleaning the margins of the water shed and monthly monitor the lake’s water quality.
Where we are
With approximately 200.000 citizens, this is an area with the lowest HDI (Human Development Index) of São Paulo. According to the Metropolitan Study Centre, the Grajaú Area’s citizens are part of the poorest, least educated and the unemployed group in the city.
Results
After
2,5 years
10 Boats built and incorporated to the Nautical Centre which was also built by the youngsters at the lake’s margin;
More than 200 children have learned how to sail, developing skills and crafts for a more autonomous life;
Thanks to the cleaning efforts around the margins, nowadays the nautical centre bay has the cleanest margins of all the Billings Lake.
“After I became part of the Saracura Project, I started to appreciate the lake and take better care of it. Now it’s ours!”
The Saracura is a project of the NGO Vento em Popa
Vento em Popa is an NGO – Non Governmental Organization - that organizes development projects focusing on education for low income communities.
Founded in 2001 by a group of Public Management students, the NGO is present at the Cocaia Peninsula, Grajaú District, in the south part of São Paulo where 200.000 people live. The area has been growing 9% per year for the last 10 years and is one of the most violent areas of the city.
With 5 years of experience, Vento em Popa has specialized in conducting strategies for sustainable community development, capable of organizing themselves and act towards common goals.
Our Program
Vento em Popa’s program is based on the development of interdependent social projects, focused in objective goals of sustainability that embrace the following topics:
Community Management
Community youngsters are educated and trained to run and manage the projects themselves, increasing the program’s social base e local empowerment.
Long Run Perspective
With clear and competitive commercial strategies, the projects lever their own financial resources, guaranteeing their continuity and gaining local trust and credibility.
Other Projects
Resoluto Community Newspaper
On its 17th edition, it is written and produced by community’s youngsters. The whole of the editorial content deals with topics related to the area and it is freely distributed throughout schools, businesses and community leaders.
Watershed Readers
There are 7 community libraries and a network of 60 reading mediators that create activities that stimulate the reading habit among the youngsters and introduce them to classic Brazilian literature books.
Contact:
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