GGE Students Make a Difference in Brazil

(Continued from here.)

The visitors included a group from the Mangueira Women's Association. They are working on acquiring a safe house for health information, training, and daycare for some of the poorest women in Rio de Janeiro. There were also visitors from Castainho, a Quilombolo community (called a Quilombo) in Pernambuco, in north-eastern Brazil. The Quilombolo are descendants of slaves and their communities are similar to communities that existed in Nova Scotia up to the 1970's. The Department is assisting them in mapping their community boundaries so that they will be able to gain title to their lands.

Over the course of the week, the visitors participated in workshops and then visited First Nations communities and black cultural groups in Nova Scotia. The highlight of the trip was spending four hours in a Tim Hortons in Amherst after the bus broke down in a snowstorm. A true Canadian experience!

Before the visitors arrived it was explained to the undergraduate students that the people coming had probably never experienced snow and would not have the appropriate clothing. The students put out a call for clothing loans and were able to outfit all of the visitors for winter. The students went one step further when they arranged a chili sale and raised just over $400, which they put together with a $200 donation from their society - the Geomatics Undergraduate Engineering Student Society - for a total of $600. They presented a cheque for $300 to the Mangueira Women's Association and one for $300 to Quilombo Castainho.

On November 30th, the students received a message from Dr. Andrea Carneiro, a professor at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, one the Brazilians involved in the CIDA project, telling them about the donation to the Castainho community and how they helped. The community decided to buy an industrial stove to put in their school. "Now the children who are at school can receive cooked food," said Dr. Carneiro. She also reported that the symbolic cheque shown in a photo below will be kept on the wall in a frame to show the community and its visitors the donation made by Canadian students.

Left to right: Lubinez Sá, Mangueira Women's Association; Roberta Holtner, GGE undergraduate student; Jose Carlos, Quilombo Castainho; and Chris Fox, GGE undergraduate student.

Some members of the Quilombo Castainho viewing pictures of the trip to Canada.

The stove they were able to purchase.