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The
objective
is to support participatory and integrated processes of comprehensive and
sustained community development, managed by the population itself. These
processes interact with and serve as alternatives to public policies, and
can be multiplied based on local realities and dynamics, contributing as a
demonstration of concrete experiences in the constitution of social and
environmental policies in the Amazon region.
With its
interdisciplinary team of doctors, agronomists and educators from a range of
areas who regularly visit the communities to pursue Integrated Development
through activities devoted to community organization; health; agro-forestry
production and management; income generation; education, art and culture;
gender; children and youth; popular communication and participatory
research.
Starting
with local realities, the most pressing needs and the input of residents,
Health & Happiness seeks out simple solutions adapted to the available
resources in the communities themselves.
The
programs seek to involve all sectors and age groups – leaders, rural
producers, health monitors, traditional midwives, women, teachers, youth and
children – training them as multipliers of actions and encouraging
self-management.
Open and
appropriate methods are selected for collective construction of knowledge,
stimulating interest in learning, which makes the evolution of knowledge
enjoyable, dynamic and inherent in the life of each person. Art, play and
communication are the principal instruments for education, participation and
mobilization, such as the Mocoronga Circus and Network ("mocorongo" is the
term used in the region to refer to someone born in Santarém, Pará).
Through
participatory diagnostics and research, the principal social indicators are
monitored using simple, objective techniques that are easily understood by
residents, allowing a joint approach to ongoing monitoring of impacts and
planning in accordance with the priorities identified.
Through an
Intercommunity Form made up of representative leaders from throughout the
area they work in, the actions are permanently assessed and delineated in
order to gradually build the local capacity necessary to take over
management of the entire process.
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Community Organization:
training of leaders and participatory management
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Health:
assistance, education and prevention |
Income Generation:
forestry management, agro-ecology, micro-credit and ecotourism
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Caboclo woman:
utilitarian art, home economics and nutrition |
Youth:
education for communication and entrepreneurship |
Children and Teachers:
environmental education, culture and more effective approaches
to teaching
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Mocoronga Popular Communication Network:
groups of youth from the forest are trained in the production of newspapers,
videos and community radio programs in a permanent exchange of information
and knowledge. |
