Uniting environmental justice and the reality of people with disabilities to renew hopes

By Attilio Zolin with information from Eduardo Alfredo Moraes Guimarães – ITC

In 2019 the CASA Socio-Environmental Fund accepted the challenge of holding a call for projects that would unite Environmental Justice with the Reality of People with Disabilities. The first project supported by this theme has already started, an initiative of the ITC – Institute of Body Therapy for Human and Community Development – an organization from Bahia that offers free courses and alternative therapies in Salvador and region – in partnership with Agrosilvicultura São Cosme and Damian.

First meeting of the project. Photo: Maria Eduarda Andrade Guimarães

The project called Indigenous and African ancestry in the buzz of the Agrarian Reform Settlement began its activities on September 8th. During the launch event, those present participated in a dynamic on agroforestry and sustainability.

The community of the Floresta do Sul Settlement, Municipality of Maraú – Bahia, currently faces great difficulty in keeping its young people active and interested in local traditions. Faced with a lack of perspective, many move to the big city where they can earn higher payments. Elderly people remain in the community, many with major mobility problems due to long years of hard work in the region’s cocoa farms, and work-related accidents.

Faced with a lack of perspective, many move to the big city where they can earn higher salaries. Photos: Maria Eduarda Andrade Guimarães

One of the most important demands of the community at the moment is the construction of a flour house and part of the supported project resources will be allocated for this purpose. Today, the settlement’s cassava is processed in Quilombo do Empata Viagem, located about 10 kilometers away from the main settlement. Traveling this long distance is not an easy task, especially for the elderly. Also, the flour produced so far is shared with the flour house owner. The construction of the flour house in the settlement is expected to awake the interest of the young to the traditions maintained from generation to generation.

The ITC team of therapists made a registration of the people present, analyzing the health conditions of the residents. Photos: Maria Eduarda Andrade Guimarães

On this first day of project activities, the ITC team of therapists made a research with the people present, raising the health conditions. Patricia, an ITC physiotherapist, assisted the elderly with special attention to the incapacitated. According to Eduardo Guimarães from ITC: “In the consultations it was clear the state of abandonment in which people live. Zé Pequeno’s son is an example of this abandonment of public power. He has been incapacitated for six years as a result of an accident. With spinal fractures can not move the legs. Today, the upper limbs are also paralyzed due to the lack of adequate physical therapy work”.

Special attention was given to incapacitated people. Photos: Maria Eduarda Andrade Guimarães

ITC staff and project partners know that it is practically impossible to reverse their health problems, but it is true that the initiative brings attention and care to them as well as differentiated service, renewing hopes that can slowly spring up and flourish again.

This project was supported through a partnership between Casa Fund and Global Greengrants Fund.