Meeting with Equip at Recife HQ

Awed, blessed, impressed, overwhelmed, amazed...some of the words that describe the feelings of myself (Kerrianne) and the group regarding the work and dedication of the people we met today who work at Equip in Recife (A D&P Partner). These people, from a diversity of backgrounds, come together along with other staff and volunteers around Brazil to do some amazing things for the people of their country. The focus of Equip is popular education. Popular education draws on peoples own lives and is geared towards the transformation of lives and communities. Through this work Equip empowers the people of Brazil (specifically the North East) and helps them to navigate their way through the democratic system in order to exact change and create a better future for themselves and other poor people of North East Brazil. Arguably, a better future for the poor also means a better future for everyone...though trying to express that to a multinational corporation can be a challenge to be sure.

These people who, as we learned in a wonderful and informative morning session by Claide Bernal (a smart and passionate woman who has been involved with the organization since its birth 22 years ago), have seen improvements in their lives due to government initiatives over the last 20, and especially the last 5 years, yet they still live without equal education and healthcare and under great subsceptability of falling victim to the dangers of drugs and violence. I was struck by the clarity of expression, and knowledge of every individual present during our discussions; and though I cannot possibly express all of what I learned, here are some snippits.

1) Government initiatives to boost the Brazilian economy through industry, tourism, dramatic increases in minimum wage, and availability of family packages with childhood education initiatives have not only stimulated the economy and abated the impact of the world wide financial crisis, but have helped to bring many (but far from all) people out of absolute and extreme poverty (into just regular run of the mill less than $3/day poverty).

2) Don't judge a book by its cover; Brazilian government tends to downplay the poverty remaining in the country, and the huge disparity between the rich and the poor (not only the very rich and the poor, but between basic middle class living by our standards and the poor). This has lead to a huge decrease in funding for local NGO's and diminished the capacities of these organizations to exact the changes needed to make a truly democratic nation with equal rights for all.

3) Equip and other organizations are working through many means to achieve their goals, and working in co-operation with each other to produce a stronger front for action and social change. This can be difficult in a capitalist economy, especially in an emerging democracy still lacking some important regulations and enforcement capacities.

4) Though public education for minors is free, it is not up to any standard that we would consider adequate. Everyone that CAN afford to send their kids to private school DOES. Public Universities, however, are the best post-secondary institutions. Unfortunately for the poor, the students that do well enough on the entry test for Public Universities are almost exclusively students with Private school educations....huh?! This, to me, needs to be fixed in a Country considered one of the emerging democratic powers (perhaps it is the Academic in me...or my amazing public school experience in Canada)

5) There seems to be a great dichotomy between supporting growth through business initiatives, and supporting social change through programs and small-scale local projects (this is universal). The world needs to look closely at up and coming democracies and help them to not make the same mistakes we see in our past, and learn about in our schools today.

6)Chicken cooked in its own blood tastes pretty good.