Integrated Development and Capacity-Building for Community Management

The difficulties faced in the previous phase meant that two years of work would still be required before PSA fully recovered, but by the time of the Third General Meeting of Health & Happiness at the end of 1996, they had regained the ground lost after 1991 in terms of their programmatic development.

These experiences helped to bring some principles of Health & Happiness to maturity. The establishment of partnerships with their counterpart entities in the public and private spheres was given priority, support for community organization was strengthened, and a focus was placed on adapting the work to each locale, by defining its specific demands and their capacity for participation in the management of the activities implemented. While some activities cover the entire area they work in – expanded from 16 to 31 communities – others of an experimental or demonstrative nature were directed only at groups that were very active and interested, in order to be multiplied at a later date.

With these measures, it was possible to optimize the cost-benefit relation of all the work, expand the spectrum of activities, strengthen the mechanisms for grassroots appropriation of the work, as well as deepen and interconnect the content of PSA’s four main programs: Health; Forest Economy; Education, Culture and Communication; and Community Organization and Management – around integrated community development.

In the area of Health, the previously trained Monitors were hired by the municipal administrations as Community Health Agents (ACSs), ensuring their ability to perpetuate the work. The system of medical and dental services was adapted to conform to the municipal rules for referrals. The regular multiple vaccination campaigns began to be held in partnership with governments and local educational agencies. To complement the educational activities in hygiene and sanitation, wells were dug, “sanitary stones” and micro-systems for running water were installed, and kits for local chlorine production were provided. Reproductive health became an important sub-program, involving dynamics around taboos regarding sexuality and gender relations, family planning orientation, AIDS prevention, elimination of malnutrition, training of traditional midwives, and health services for women and children. To strengthen the participatory component, Local Integrated Health Commitees (CLIS) were created in the communities, made up of health agents, leaders and users of the system, which were responsible for management of the work and interaction with public policies.

The Forest Economy sector, which in previous phases faced the challenge of raising and diversifying the food supply, in this phase represented the foundations for sustainable economic development of the communities. Demonstration projects were implemented with agro-forestry systems, forest management, processing of fruit, raising small animals, renewable energies and micro-credit, seeking to increase family income through ecological correct practices. The prior work with the Clubs of Mothers gave rise to the sub-program Cabocla Woman (a cabocla is a person of mixed Indian and European descent), which provides support for women in production and marketing of food products – sweets, candies, jellies, etc., along with items for which there is a demand in Brazil’s large urban centers – straw baskets, hammocks and crafts in general. The sector also encouraged the formalization of community organizations, governed by plans for the use of natural resources, thereby contributing to the good management of productive activities, along with providing a legal basis for commercial operations.

The Education, Culture and Communication program was responsible for supporting the other sectors in all the educational processes, along with specific activities focused on children and youth, seeking to transform the Schools into centers for diffusion of formal and informal knowledge. The teachers were involved as multipliers of the work and trained in the use of techniques that can make teaching more effective and bring it closer to local reality. Youth were trained as rural reporters able to regularly produce and broadcast community radio and video programs and community newspapers with general and educational content, thus forming the Mocoronga Popular Communication Network. Through the Junior Monitor subprogram, aimed at children between 6 and 12 years of age, workshops were held addressing issues of health, environmental education and cultural recovery, making the learning enjoyable through the use of play-oriented activities and art-education. The Mocorongo Circus was adopted by the population, with presentations organized by the residents themselves, even without the participation of the Health & Happiness team.

Community Organization and Management was given a high priority during this phase, and was understood as the principal instrument for achieving community autonomyand sustainability of the activities implemented. In this regard, leaders were trained in education for civic integration and management of community development. Through providing support for application of the adapted techniques for assessment, planning and administration in the local management of the work, the communities were provided with support and capacity to enable them to make progress towards self-management. In addition, a variety of workshops and seminars were held, addressing issues like globalization, rights and duties, and the third sector, which enabled the expansion of the direct participation of the rural population in the processes devoted to improving public policies, such as the various municipal councils and existing movements in the Amazon, thus contributing to reducing the levels of social exclusion.

At the end of 2001, the Fourth General Meeting of Health & Happiness was held, with the participation of almost 2000 leaders, and a reporting on the progress achieved in this phase. Along with the significant improvement in the quality of life indicators – social organization, basic health, family income, education and environment – one of the best qualitative results was the mobilization achieved and the human capital accumulated through the multiplier agents and volunteers trained – community health agents, midwives, producers, teachers, junior monitors, youth and women’s groups – which goes a long way to ensuring the social sustainability of the activities and creating the conditions necessary to the consolidation of an integrated, broad and participatory model of development where all are not only beneficiaries, but also co-responsible for its construction.