By Diane Pereira Sousa and Ivanderson Campos
It's time to pay attention to the scale! This excerpt from the song Cartas de amor by Maria Bethânia says a lot about the journey we have been building over the years of existence of the Baixada Maranhense Community Institute.
As a member of Philanthropy Network for Social Justice In 2020 we started, through the Support Program, a line of action to contribute to reducing the impacts of the new coronavirus pandemic in Baixada Maranhense. The name of this program is Listen. This concept for us means: 1) listening accurately; 2) understand the senses; 3) go beyond the clod; 4) disintegrate matter; 5) that abnormal sounds are precious; 6) connect; 7) bring your eyes together to understand; 8) make visible.
We will tell a concrete story about the results and learning generated from this program and its importance for strengthening our organization.
Domingas is a 52-year-old woman. Born and raised in the rural area of São Vicente Ferrer. There where the marker of time is nature, relationships are established in a community way, the I is constantly creating the us. She is a farmer, plants rice, cassava to make flour, fishes, makes cofo, produces what she consumes and what sustains her entire family. In Aningas, the community where he lives, barter is common, the wind is the messenger of help. Suddenly she shouts to her neighbor in a communication that is difficult to decipher for outsiders “Francilda, is there dry seasoning there?” It’s our cue to understand the dynamics of that place. Everything seemed to follow the path she designed, but something changed and it wasn't just in that small, beautiful community.
In this context of people, winds and voices, we brought together young leaders from five cities in Baixada Maranhense: São João Batista, Olinda Nova, São Vicente Ferrer, Palmeirândia and Arari to unleash their powerful solidarity. We presented a proposal and created a working network so that voices like Domingas’ could reach us and we could reach them, listening to them.
O Listen and that. An emergency program that mobilizes different actors, uniting their views to perceive and listen with precision to the voices that echo in invisibility.
Using a network structure, we map businesses so that they become points of solidarity. 220 families received our social currency as credit to purchase food, cleaning materials and preventive health in these establishments. Therefore, we also support community entrepreneurs. We carried out a mapping that listened to the opinions of teachers, parents and students about the conditions for offering online education during a pandemic. We distributed 840 masks to schools, communities, community associations and youth groups, these were produced by five women seamstresses from each of the cities.
These actions benefited the following audiences: 113 solo mothers, 10 supportive businesses and five women-owned businesses, 220 families (60.6% headed by women), 210 teachers and 506 public school students. Nine institutions collaborated directly during the execution of the project.
This initiative certainly helps to strengthen the community philanthropy, especially because it directly affects the action that leads to support, that generates change, that cooperates to sustain the territory and make it a space that generates local development.
In Baixada, the IB develops its actions aiming to:
Continuously raise resources to support Baixada Maranhense;
Support professional training for young people, women entrepreneurs, rural workers and municipal leaders;
Support, with resources raised, structuring support (incubator, laboratories, education points for development);
Support, via notices with funds raised, projects and small businesses in Baixada Maranhense.
We understand that networks are important to strengthen the ecosystem, dynamics, broaden the horizon of funds and, above all, create references and support along the way. O listen represents this action of transformative cooperation. Finding the Domingas who build the community's economic base, and who with their actions reach other levels of sociability, to support them not only in survival, but in experiencing the local and sustainable development of a territory will always be one of our most important intentions, and our mission.
* Meaning of cofo: [Brazil] A type of oval basket, with a tight mouth, in which fishermen store their fish; samburá.
Diane Pereira Sousa is Superintendent of the Baixada Maranhense Community Institute. Master in Human Rights, Interculturality and Development. Fellow Ashoka. Partner-Director of Training – Basic Education Support Center. UOL-ECOA Curator.
Ivanderson Campos is Vice President of the Baixada Maranhense Community Institute. Specialist in Critical Theory of Human Rights. Fashion designer. Managing Partner of Cia de Dança Chegança.
