When I was a child, I accompanied my parents
making visits to families living in situations of social vulnerability,
and I began to notice that there was a reality very different from mine.
I remember that I was visiting families
who lived in neighborhoods close to my
and that they lived completely different realities from everything that I lived.
I was growing up saying that I wanted to do psychology,
because I enjoyed listening to people.
I asked my parents to put me in a high school.
that was aimed at the vestibular,
because I did not want to do high school technical.
I wanted to move to a federal psychology college.
I went to a high school entrance exam
and in that college, I was selected to attend a workshop
called “United Conscience”.
It was a workshop developed by the British Council
and applied here in the city by a round-redondense,
which had as its objective the youthful protagonism.
In this event, there were lectures and elaboration of projects,
but unfortunately, after the event,
the people did not meet again to execute the ideas,
but I was still very enthusiastic, wanting to be a change agent,
and I decided to gather some friends, in the year of 2010, on a holiday of Finados,
in order to plan something social.
It was the month of November, and in December it was already Christmas.
That’s when the “Praying in Action” project was conceived.
He had as his main objective not only to take something material,
but always carry a message in action,
and we wanted to bring the true meaning of Christmas too.
But our goal, unique,
is to promote the common good regardless of religion.
We did the first action.
It was wonderful because we started to discover
that we could have a sign of hope in people’s lives
doing very little,
and we decided not to stop
and do the actions on all other commemorative dates of the year.
I invited the workshop organizer to be part of the project.
She was approaching me
and advised me to take the Public Administration course.
I did not know the course.
I researched, I informed myself, I became interested, I passed the entrance exam
and I am currently completing my degree in Public Administration,
for believing that, as a public administrator, I can help people more.
Throughout the course, I was seeing that, in practice, the theory did not happen,
and I confess this was very disappointing,
but I also knew a concept called “social participation”,
which is a concept that made me an agent of change
and to change the reality of people
and to ensure that the rights guaranteed by the Constitution took place.
With the project experiences,
I have become sensitized to many social issues
and I began to develop my work of completing my course
with the theme of basic sanitation.
But, throughout my studies,
I was seeing that it was not enough just to talk about sanitation
because basic sanitation has many consequences.
The lack of sanitation is related to the area of education,
because children who do not have basic sanitation
grow with learning “deficit”.
is related to work and income because people get sick
and can not get to work.
It is related to the area of housing, the health area, in short.
Conclusion: I ended up changing my theme of TCC
for intersectoral public policies.
Talking about intersectorality means saying
that areas need to function in an articulated and decentralized way.
One can not speak of education unrelated to culture.
One can not speak of sport unrelated to leisure.
One can not speak of education without being linked to social assistance.
There is a government program to exemplify:
the Family Grant.
The Family Grant was
as a way of serving different areas.
People who receive the Bolsa Família
need to be with children with school attendance,
need to have the vaccination card up to date
and have a follow-up with the CRAS,
which is the Reference Center for Social Assistance.
So the federal government devised a public policy, a program,
thought in an intersectoral way.
Anyway …
My relationships …
I think it will not run the animation …
but here are some gears
who say that my human relations
they brought me experiences that made me understand
that, as in public policy, I need interaction to work well,
that, alone, I can even move,
but in a collective, I can bring movement into my life, but not only in it;
to other people’s lives as well.
I’ve been having amazing results from intersectoral networks.
Started…
In the year 2013, we met a community that deserved much attention,
but the group was not big enough
to give the attention that this community deserved.
That was when, in 2015, the group strengthened and returned in that community
to give them the attention they deserved
and in this community, we hear a phrase that has impacted a lot, which was:
“We need presence, not just gifts.”
We decided to apply a questionnaire in this community
to understand what were the main demands they had
because, before our eyes, the demands were numerous,
there were numerous shortcomings:
it was sewage in the open, they were houses of wood,
the children did not have an occupation.
Anyway, we had to understand
which they saw as something of an emergency.
After the application of the questionnaire, we had a diagnosis
and we decided to split the project into two teams,
a cultural team and a social team.
The cultural team was responsible for design workshops,
reading, football, music.
We ended up gaining space there in that community.
They gave us a shack, they gave us a table, a chair,
so that we could hold workshops with the children.
But the shack was not enough.
We also got the CIEP key, to make the workshops.
Anyway …
The other team was the social team,
who was responsible for accompanying the struggle for decent housing
and develop greater contact with residents.
There had been a disregard of public power for more than eight years
with the promise of housing for them.
There were houses that had been in the works for a long time.
It was when this social team of volunteers,
both in the Public Administration course and in the Law course,
was present at these meetings with the mayor of Barra Mansa
to show that the community was not alone,
that they had people who had a little more knowledge
to be following their case.
The houses were still the same.
They made the promises, but the solutions did not come.
It was when the community decided to make the occupation of these houses,
and we saw that we needed to somehow help this community,
but in a lawful way, because there were companies that supported us.
There was a bus route
that carried the volunteers to this community
and also a supermarket chain that provided snacks for these children.
It was when a member of the project took to the media the neglect of the public power,
and had an immediate effect.
The mayor, afraid of the repercussion of the case,
resumed works even after the occupation
and said he was not going to take the families out of there.
Here are photos of before occupation and after occupation.
Even after the occupation, they returned to put windows, doors,
and the paintings were made.
We ended up being a kind of fuel for those residents
which, until then, were no longer moving, out of disbelief.
We just managed to do
with which they would unite to fight for something that they deserved.
Now, you are going to watch a video where two people from the community
they talk about why we can consider this fuel.
(Video)
Dweller: A year ago, when you arrived, you got what?
A people who did not believe in anything,
a rebellious people, right?
And, coming the project, you practically taught us:
“Let’s do it there? Let’s do it there?”
You outsiders brought this to us.
So we took what you brought from there
and we put it here again, because I do not even want to …
Interviewer: What might have influenced that moment for you, what do you think?
Resident: More than 90%.
Interviewer: Why this 90% count?
Dweller: Because we needed a cool mirror.
You were this mirror, no doubt,
maybe because of the strength with which you came talking to us
and help, support, and protection.
Maybe no one has ever given so much protection … (Video ends)
(Applause)
We ended up being part of a historical moment in that community.
We realize that, by adding forces, joining our pieces,
extraordinary changes happen, and we are generators of change.
To have a city beyond steel,
in which the bonds with a common purpose prevail,
that we are not a rusting piece,
but that we can be in constant motion
to be generators of change,
so that we can change a phrase that we have heard,
which was “my home beyond life” to be transformed into a phrase:
“My house, my rights, my life”.
Thanks.
(Applause) (Live)
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