March 29, 2022 / Education, Culture and Communication / Community Networks

The region is one of the seven to take part in the international training program which, in Brazil, is led by the Projeto Saúde e Alegria

Located on the right bank of the Solimões River in the municipality of Alvarães, Amazonas, the Marajaí village, an indigenous land of the Mayoruna people, received the team from the School of Community Networks of the Amazon in the period March 26-27

The village, which is composed of 192 families and 900 inhabitants, has as one of its greatest challenges: the need to expand communication. One of the expectations of the community leaders is to enhance the training of young people to expand the spread of information within the village, says the village tuxaua, Midas: “for us the means of communication is very important. Marajaí has many young people who want to practice communication. It is an incentive for our school”.

Last Saturday (March 26th), the field actions of the School of Community Networks of the Amazon reached the village. Leaders, teachers and students from the school came to participate in the workshop with the objective of reflecting on the territory, mapping the strengths, challenges and dreams of the collective. The process was conducted by Adriane Gama and Guilherme Gitahy de Figueiredo – a specialist from the school.
“We were welcomed with a warm presentation by the children. The girls’ dance and the blessing of the tuxaua. It was a meeting attended by the teachers, directors of the indigenous school and village leaders and the three students of the school. On Sunday we participated in the meeting of the weavers of pots – an example of an Amazonian communication project, carried out in the Middle Solimões” – pointed out Adriane Gama.

On Sunday (27th), the school participated in the project of community communication networks from the Middle Solimões region, Tecedores de Paneiros. Collectives of young people presented their actions of Communitarian Communication with the exhibition of film productions, lectures about fake news, a cinematographic painting workshop, and a video workshop using a cell phone application.

From the face-to-face meetings that will take place until the end of April in the seven participating communities, the board of the School of Community Networks of the Amazon will compose the curriculum of the training that takes place from July to December – seven experts and seven leaders of each organization involved are part of the board.

“Our weekend was simply amazing. The bricolage of the workshop on Saturday with teachers, leaders and communicators, and the ajuri of communication projects supporting the Marajaí communication project on Sunday, especially welcoming the children and young people of the village were great” – considered professor dr. Guilherme Gitahy.

For one of the school’s students, Mariany Martins, the workshop was an opportunity to visualize actions to strengthen community initiatives: “Being a student at the school brings me several expectations and one of them is to deepen my knowledge to spread information in my village. Today we could see the mobilization of our teachers, managers and young people who interact”.

The three students from the network school village are: Mariany Martins, Jovane Neves and Charles Oliveira, all three are teachers at the indigenous school. The trio will join 21 students from three states of the Legal Amazon (Acre, Amazonas and Pará) in the first class of the Community Networking School of the Amazon. The classes will start in July 2022, based on thematic contents collectively designed to strengthen the networks involved.

The communities selected to participate in the training are: in Pará, the projects Ciência Cidadã in the Solimões Village and Guardiöes do Bem Viver in PAE Lago Grande – both in the municipality of Santarém – and the Rede Águas do Cuidar/ Casa Preta in the Caratateua Island, greater Belém. In the state of Amazonas, the Marajaí Village, municipality of Alvarães – Middle Solimões; the Formigueiro Group of Vila de Lindóia in Itacoatiara; and the Wayuri Network in São Gabriel da Cachoeira. In Acre, the Puyanawa Village in Mâncio Lima.