Education & Income Generation for Social Integration in Salvador

 Urban Life project participants
Urban Life project participants

Goals:

  • Education for income generation: access to formal education, employment and entrepreneurship
  • Health: raise awareness and combat water-related diseases
  • Human Rights: enhance women's, youth's and children's rights; and gender equity

Services:

  • Project co-creation, implementation, Q&A and reporting
  • Coalition building / collective impact facilitation
  • Fundraising
  • Evaluation
  • Promotion

Partners:

  • FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE (ACCIÓN SOCIAL), Spanish biggest insurance company, third one in the world
  • CUFA, the leading and largest NGO in Brazil
  • Bagunçaço, Salvador
  • Salvador Municipality and Government
  • Instituto Empreender
  • SEBRAE - Brazilian Agency to support Entrepreneurs and Development

Results: 

50 people, aged from 16 to 29 years old, from target communities trained as tourist guides

 Lito, Project leader family, and some participants
Lito, Project leader family, and some participants

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Context:

According to the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme, data from 2012) Brazil is 85th in global ranking with high income inequality despite high growth rates. Brazilian HDI (Human Development Index) is 0.730 (United Nations, data from 2012). This inequality and social exclusion, linked with low workforce qualification, is slowing Brazilian development according to the UN. 

As a reference point, Norway is in first place in the UN's human development ranking with 0.955 points. Niger and Democratic Republic of Congo lie last with 0.304 points.

According to IBGE (Brazilian Statistics Institute, 2010), Bahia State has more than 14 million inhabitants, and over one million live in deprived areas - favelas. Salvador de Bahia, its capital, has more than 2.6 million inhabitants and more than one in three inhabitants, over 882 thousand people, live in favelas

Salvador is the largest city on Northeast coast of Brazil and its educational system is deficient. Less than 850,000 people go to school, over 1.65 million people used to go to school but don’t go anymore and more than 168 thousand people have never been to school

The project is taking place in Pelourinho with participants from the following favelas: Comunidade do Alagados, Favela da Gamboa, Comunidade Solá do Inhão, Favela Suburbana and Sussuarana. These communities have major social problems such as a lack of education, security and transport, absence of leisure areas, high rates of prostitution, drug dependency, violence. Official statistics of these areas are not available.

Tourism is one of the most attractive industries in Brazil and in Salvador de Bahia, especially in the build up to the World Cup.

Challenge:

To engender social mobility through tourism and income generation. We trained 50 people, aged from 16 to 29 years old, from the communities as tourist guides.


Methodology:

• Co-creation with local grassroots leaders, Mr. Joselito Crispim. I am always looking for ways to empower local grassroots leaders.
• The operational team is comprised of people who live in the communities and know, from the inside, their needs and issues. Local people have to be the protagonists of their social change.
• Culture (music, theatre, local culture like capoeira) was used to engage participants and their families. It's important to learn while having fun.
• Visits to theatres, museums and to historic points of Salvador to motivate and engage and integrate social groups while enhancing knowledge of the city. 
• Participants’ families are engaged in the learning process. 
• Citizenship, education for diversity, health care and sustainability are embedded in the training program.

For related publications please see:


For related video:
Baguncaco Band  (home made)