By Ana Paula Martins | Fundraising Director
Dear friend,
We hope you are safe and well.
2020 was a challenging year for everyone, especially the most vulnerable people. But it will also be remembered as an important moment of change, powered by people from all over the planet who believe that together we can change reality.
We want to thank you for supporting this transformation. Day after day, it is becoming a reality. We recognize the grandeur of this project when we see how much our work has had a positive impact on the life of the most vulnerable families in the Vidigal slum community. Understanding that Agrofavela can be scaled to other slums fills us with hope and energy to make it happen as a commitment to creating sustainable ecosystems for the slum communities all over the world.
Now, check out how we got here and how things are going here in Vidigal:
The project
In April 2020, we launched an action to help the most vulnerable families in the Vidigal slum community overcome the coronavirus crisis. This initiative is called Vidigal Vive and is based on the collective efforts of NGO partners and local social projects. In total, we supported nearly 5000 families from April to December. However, we observed that we couldn't change their delicate situation only by donating basic food kits during the process. It was clear that we needed to invest in strengthening the community with regards to their health and economic reality. So, we decided to include an organic food kit from local farms to distribute with the basic food kits, therefore improving the local population's health. Delivering these kits would not be enough to cause impact, so we also added education to this process, and the Agrofavela project was born.
Our goal is to cultivate self-sustainable impact ecosystems in the Vidigal slum, focused on organic agriculture, nutritional education, health, sustainability, and income generation within the community. This initiative will help the most vulnerable population of the Vidigal slum to recover from the period of the crisis caused by the pandemic, boosting the local economy with green jobs and improving the health and quality of life of the residents.
What we have done so far
The Launch:
On the 24th of November we celebrated the international Climate Professional Day, and Favela Inc., in partnership with Youth Climate Leaders, enjoyed this special day to launch the Agrofavela Project officially.
We broadcasted this event live, where people from all over the world could follow. We discussed what the Climate Professional does, their role, importance, correlation with our Agrofavela project, and how the slum communities deal with environmental and sustainability challenges.
The event started with Adam Newman, President of Favela Inc., presenting the programming for the day and the mission and strategy of the Agrofavela Project. Then, Nayara Santana, our in-house certified Nutritionist responsible for the Agrofavela Course Content, explained more about what the families will learn in our Agrofavela workshops.
We also had the honor of receiving the Community Street Sweeper Team, who worked hard for our community to protect our forest, minimize trash accumulation, and re-educate the favela's people about our impact on the environment. These men have removed more than 5 tons of waste and created the Sitiê Ecopark, now officially recognized as a municipal ecological park composed of nearly 10,000 sq. meters of Atlantic rainforest. They sent their message to the whole world about everybody's responsibility for climate change and invited us to take action for a better community. They were the first ones to receive the organic food kits from the Agrofavela Project, thus officially launching the program.
We had lots of good regional Brazilian music during lunch with the artists' Du Machado and Isis Maria, bringing traditional songs from the countryside that discuss reconnection with the land and its importance in a human's life.
We also had a panel with some local community leaders and residents talking about the health and nutrition situation in Vidigal, correlating their point of view and experiences among the population.
Nayara Santana closed the event by leading workshops inspiring us to think about our nutrition and teaching us how to plant seeds with love and care.
The community and all of us here at Favela Inc. can't wait to see the Agrofavela classes happening, and it will all start in a few days!
Lots of good news are coming soon, and we are going to keep you updated!
Feel free to follow along via our Facebook and Instagram channels and invite your friends as well. As our donor we consider you to be a part of our family and the results of our efforts are only made possible because of your tremendous generosity and trust!
Are you interested in becoming a Favela Inc. ambassador in order to help us reach more people like you and impact more slum residents? Then come along we would love to have you with us!
Please send us your questions, comments, or feedback by e-mail at anapaula@favelainc.com. Your engagement is very important to us and helps us learn and grow as an organization.
THANK YOU FOR BEING PART OF OUR JOURNEY!
Links:
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