Mission

Mission Statement

PAX is a Brazilian, a non-governmental, non-party politic and non-profit organization that promotes activities based on sustainable environmental action, education, health, arts and culture in order to improve the quality of life and equal opportunities for vulnerable communities and those at risk.

A Brief History

PAX was founded in 1997 at the initiative of local residents, out of dire necessity, with the intention of working towards local improvements at various levels. Its members believe that local residents, commerce and industry should assume responsibility by collaborating to preserve their rich, natural environment and for this purpose PAX works towards economic sustainability and community-based projects. It is particularly concerned with improving the quality of life and in elevating the self-esteem of the children by generating creativity, awareness and free access to information. It is equally concerned with obtaining resources for the underprivileged, providing a cultural rescue programme and generating work and self-sufficiency for the local communities of Rio de Janeiro.

Xerém - The Present Reality

Their hometown, Xerém, (pronounced “Sherreng”), is in the 4th district of the municipality of Duque de Caxias in the state of Rio de Janeiro and represents 53% of the geographic territory of Caxias, with approximately 80,000 registered voters and 8,000 children of school age. Originating from the name of the river pilot, John Charring, a native of London who managed to immigrate to Brazil in an epoch when it was uncommon for ‘free’ foreigners to reside in the country, and who settled in the region in 1725, Xerém is 40km, (or about 50 minutes by car), from downtown Rio on the “Rio-Petropolis” highway. It is situated in a territory originally known for its extensive natural resources of great beauty.

The mountains of the Tinguá Biological Reserve protect all the northern parts with their exuberant, dense forests, waterfalls and rivers, framing the region geographically with the “Serra do Mar” (sea escarpment) of the Atlantic Rainforest, forming a magnificent natural boundary and providing sweet crystalline water with five rivers which flow through and around the town.

The breathtaking beauty of this region has inspired the creation of numerous films and television series. At the same time, it also provides shelter to an enormous diversity of flora and fauna of profound technical and scientific importance.

Today, This Is Under Threat!

You would be forgiven for thinking that Xerém offers an idyllic and charmed life style. While this may be true for a few, Xerém is no stranger to deprivation, social isolation, homelessness, crime, corruption, pollution as well as numerous other urban problems. Addressing these challenges effectively is an urgent priority. Due to the lack of economic opportunities, the sparseness of accessible vocational training and basic resources or access to information, the majority of residents living in these areas is unskilled and has little or no experience of how to get into the job market. Often living in poverty and feeling disenfranchised they find it difficult to tackle these problems or envisage solutions towards improving their own living conditions.

Since the Second World War, Xerém experienced a history of disorganized occupation, invasion and exploitation as well as a total lack of any form of urban planning, sanitation, adequate roads, a deteriorating quality of education, the lack of educational facilities and virtually no arts or entertainment. The local cinema, built by Fiat for its workers, was deactivated when the Fiat Company closed down. The once thriving Fiat plant, which provided jobs for over 7,000 workers, found better tax concessions in the State of Minas Gerais, leaving behind a now unemployed work force and their families in a state of desperation, desolation and low self-esteem, who since the mid-eighties have been struggling to reintegrate into the jobs market to obtain some form of sustenance and security.

Because of these conditions support is recognized as essential: PAX has been instrumental in striving for better living conditions and in raising public awareness by involving local residents in four important areas of change, i.e. - social, cultural, educational and environmental.

It is for these reasons that the members of PAX believe their action is crucial and is at the forefront of the struggle to obtain the solutions to these problems, all within the context of finite resources.

Urgent Attention!

Among the numerous problems which exist in the region, the following have been identified by members of PAX, and most of the residents associations in Xerém as being among the most serious and in urgent need of attention:

1. Lack Of Sanitation, Sewage And Hydraulic Systems.

There is a total lack of urban sanitation, sewage treatment plant, and an effluent or efficient hydraulic system. Many residents have no septic tanks and their sewage flows directly into one of the five rivers running through the town, and eventually into Guanabara Bay. In addition to this, residents frequently throw their garbage into the rivers or under the bridges, unaware of the potential dangers. The accumulation of sewage and garbage has resulted in health hazards.

As a consequence of this many children and the elderly frequently suffer from fever and often from more fatal diseases. This has also attracted rats with diseases such as Leptospirosis, among others.

In the Gazetta Mercantil of 3rd - 9th September, 2001 it was written that “one of the concerns of state governments is the 10-year period in which the Federal Government wants basic sanitation services to become universal. On one hand, according to a document the forum itself presented, for every dollar invested in basic sanitation, governments save 4 to 5 dollars in medical treatment. On the other hand, recent estimates indicate it will cost some $20 billion to extend services to everyone”.

In June 1997, members of PAX spoke to the mayor of the local municipality, requesting the urgent installation of urban sanitation and a sewage treatment plant, with no response. Again in November 1998, PAX requested the same from the Municipal Secretary of the Environment, this time handing over a signed petition by 6,400 residents at an official round-table meeting. Despite non-action by the municipal authorities PAX is still continuing its campaign for positive action.

2. Inadequate Garbage Collection.

Garbage collection is extremely erratic and selective collection is non-existent in the region. No separate collection of sharps or medical waste exists. All the garbage goes to the same municipal dump in Duque de Caxias. The supply of garbage bins or skips, even in the centre of Xerém, is equally a rarity. PAX has taken action and supplied most of the oil-drums for garbage collection in the town and regularly monitors collection.

3. Lack Of Urban Planning.

Urban planning in Xerém was and still is non-existent and no current town plan or map exists. With the migration of people from rural areas to the cities, the district was largely squatted, invaded or plots were and still are illegally sold off by unscrupulous landowners including local politicians, ignoring federal laws. Incredible as it may seem, many roads are without names and some residents don’t even know their own addresses or house numbers.

One of the projects in which PAX aims at implementing and involving local students, is the development of a full-scale town map and building a three-dimensional model of Xerém and the Tinguá Biological Reserve, with the aid of satellite photography. This would literally put the town and its residents “back on the map”. However, to do this project, funding is required.

4. Inadequate Roads.

Xerém borders on the Rainforest and as the name suggests, it rains a lot. Road construction is of the most basic type and totally inadequate, with only a few major roads having asphalt, (applied on the cheap, prior to elections), and thus in constant repair. However, the majority is dirt roads, which turn into rivers of mud making many impassable to pedestrians and cars, during the frequent rains. Requests have frequently been made to local government to remedy this and PAX continues to push for action.

5. Deforestation, Land Degradation & Extraction.

Deforestation, land degradation and extraction is extremely common due to: a) Illegal slash and burn tactics practiced for subsistence farming and cattle-raising, where large areas or entire hills are denuded for the pasture of a few head of cattle; b) Illegal strip-burning for the purpose of selling charcoal, often carried out at irregular hours when there is less chance of being detected by police helicopters; c) The indiscriminate destruction of hills and mountainsides to extract earth for housing construction or to create illegal plots for resale as real estate is usually perpetrated or sanctioned by local politicians and even the municipality. Bulldozers and trucks are employed towards this end and are a regular daily occurrence churning the dirt roads into rivers of mud when it rains or throwing out billows of dust when it is dry; d) The extraction of washed sand from the riverbeds is used for the same purpose having a devastating effect on the route of the rivers and on the native fauna and flora; In the February/March rains, landslides of houses occur every year, (illegally) built close to the river banks, with fatal results. e) Illegal entry into the Tinguá Biological Reserve by unscrupulous companies, armed gangs and individuals for the extraction of palm hearts, hunting, and indiscriminate extraction of flora in general.

On numerous occasions, PAX has monitored and reported such cases to the Secretary for the Environment and continues to press for action to end these destructive practices.

6. Pollution In The Rainforest.

Illegal invasion of the rivers and banks of the reserve by tourists has caused serious pollution as a consequence. Especially on weekends during the summer months, an average of 3,000 tourists from neighbouring areas invade the Tinguá Biological Reserve polluting the forest and attracting vendors and stall holders who leave their garbage strewn in and around the rivers. There are no facilities for these “guests”, whatsoever, least of all for the disposal or collection of their garbage. A catch-22 situation exists. IBAMA, the federal agency responsible for the forests, has insufficient staff to be everywhere, having only 25 forestry inspectors for the entire state of Rio, (an area, three and a half times the size of the UK), and the municipality is not responsible as it has no jurisdiction over federal territory such as that of the Tinguá Biological Reserve.

PAX has carried out various “community clean-ups” along the pathways and some of the riverbanks, but even with the removal of a ton of garbage each time, it is merely a drop in the ocean and extremely inadequate. Sustainable solutions for this problem are possible and PAX is currently devising an ecological tourism project in collaboration with the municipality and IBAMA.

7. Illiteracy & Lack Of Vocational Training.

Among its aims PAX intends to secure the inclusion of all children, young people and adults in either mainstream education or vocational training to enable them to develop their awareness and potential, participating fully in their communities. The high level of illiteracy among local residents urgently needs to be addressed.

PAX has already initiated courses in basic literacy and numeracy. But, vocational training courses are equally in great demand and a great necessity. All those currently attending the existing courses wish to continue, but the local funding is coming to an end and there are more residents who wish to enroll. In addition to this there is a manifest need for IT skills courses. To this end PAX has drawn up an IT Office Skills project and is trying to obtain financial support for this in the UK and abroad.

8. Lack Of Environmental Awareness.

As previously mentioned, Xerém borders on a Biological Reserve with one of the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet. Yet, despite the extreme level of exploitation and aggression towards this ecological reserve, (Today less than 6% of the original Atlantic Rainforest remains), there still is insufficient provision for environmental awareness or education.

In June 1998, PAX consulted local schools about environmental education and its possible inclusion in the school curriculum. The response was one of unanimous enthusiasm and support. As a consequence PAX contacted the municipal secretary for education requesting that it be considered for inclusion. Neither comment, response nor any action has been forthcoming. Therefore, PAX is currently running a pilot project for youth entitled “Environmental Monitors” and has been invited to be part of the consultative council of IBAMA in its attempt to offset this imbalance.

9. Lack Of The Arts And Limited Recreational Facilities.

The district has no cinema, theatre, art or community centre. There is no entertainment, arts or cultural events and activities for the residents of Xerém, nor in the neighbouring vicinities. Youngsters hang out in the local square in the evenings with no outlet for their creative potential. Similarly, there are no facilities at all for accessible vocational training in the arts.

PAX frequently includes one-off free workshops in the arts at its public events and was instrumental in establishing the first Community Library “Biblioteca Ferreira Gullar”, in the district. Over 24 professional and nationally famous artists, covering a broad range of disciplines in the arts, act as volunteers. PAX is also currently running a successful ceramics skill course for the second year and is currently developing the plans for a Community Arts Centre.

Conclusions

Most of the management committee members of PAX are also members of the local residents associations who have carried out surveys with other local residents. These findings show that identity and status within the community is established by where one lives and the conditions in which one lives:

Due to sheer neglect, many residents have the impression that the authorities do not consider them worthy of basic living conditions, which enhances their belief of being second class citizens, thereby reinforcing their lack of self-esteem;
Many do not know that they have the right to common basic living conditions or how to request their rights;
Many also feel that to demand these rights may jeopardize their chances of getting work in the district, with the powers that be;
As a consequence, these factors of social and economic deprivation affect residents adversely.

Solutions

PAX is aware of the fact that solutions for some of the problems are more complex than others, and that many aggressive activities carried out against the environment are not only perpetrated by large manufacturers or industry but also by desperate local residents with no other means of procuring a livelihood.

PAX is therefore developing partnerships and ideas for co-operatives and other alternative and sustainable sources of income, in collaboration with local residents, as part of the solution and also as a means towards putting an end to some of the destructive practices mentioned.

Funding And Supporting

Funding is essential to address these needs and problems and to implement practical short term and long term solutions. Local project funding is extremely limited and there is no provision for setting-up fees, equipment or adequate facilities for sustainable infrastructures. In view of this situation, national and international partnerships and financial support is crucial to set up these necessary infrastructures. This in turn will help to obtain local support and create a domino effect in achieving objectives and subsequent continuity of its projects. PAX envisages this as a means towards sustainability, involvement of the local community and ultimately local empowerment and self-sufficiency.

Participative Management

It is the expressed intention of PAX to provide access to and involve the community in all areas possible, particularly with regard to programming input and course selection as well as participation in its managerial and decision making structure, and students/participants in its projects are encouraged to participate in the management process and selection of future projects which they want.

PAX is a grass-roots organization made up of a large and varied group of volunteers and management team, registered in the municipality of Duque de Caxias in the State of Rio de Janeiro.

Equal Opportunities

PAX believes in equal opportunities for all its members in which no one shall be discriminated against on the grounds of - gender, sexual persuasion, religion or religious beliefs, age, disability, financial status, marital status, union membership, political beliefs, colour, race or origin.

By nature of its constitution it cannot be involved in party politics.

The Management Committee

Vera Lucia Pereira da Silva
President (Legal Advisor, PR & Project Management)

Alan Hayman
Vice-President (International Liaison & Events Producer)

Sérgio Natureza
Social & Cultural Director

Maria Aparecida Docasar
Treasurer

Rose Aparecida Docasar
Secretary

Ricardo Texeira
Technical Advisor (Forestry Engineer)

If you would like to know more about our projects, become a “PAX PARTNER” or support any of our projects please contact us via the address below. We would be delighted to hear from you.

Thank you, for taking the time to read this.

PAX - INTERNATURAL
Rio de Janeiro - Brazil,

“At the end, we only preserve what we love, we only love what we understand and we only understand what we’ve been taught.”

Baba Dioum - a Senegalese Environmentalist

Projetos

Project Preservation of Human Nature

Making solutions for who need so much.

Funded by UNESCO and the Ministry of Health, transforming 30 teenagers into multipliers of the prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases or STD and AIDS, prevention of teenage pregnancy as well as advice regarding drug-taking and Human Rights, in the District of Xerém – Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro.

Pictures of Project in AAFBB
Pictures of Project in Jardim Ana Clara

Project Prevention & Citizanship

Funded by Riopol, transforming 34 youth as multipliers of citizenship and the prevention of teenage pregnancy and STD / AIDS as well as Human Rights, in the District of Campos Elíseos – Jardim Ana Clara – Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro.

The predominantly teenage multipliers of both projects above, who come from communities at risk, present campaigns in schools, medical posts, squares, and at public events, promoting safe sex, family planning, and personal care to prevent the dangers in local urban society. They are also made aware of their rights and obligations as citizens and in the process of learning how to campaign and speak in public, develop self-awareness and self-esteem and their own potential as human beings. They, themselves communicate with and are able to convince and alert their contemporaries of the dangers present in contemporary society for the unwary. The project is so successful that it has been repeated for the fifth year in Xerém and for the third year in Jardim Ana Clara which will continue in 2008.

Project “ARP”

In plain English this means Learn, Reconstruct & Participate

in partnership with the University of Greater Rio – “Unigranrio” and funded by Riopol, provide 24 trainee teachers from their education department who offer school reinforcement to over 70 children and adolescents in Jardim Ana Clara, on a weekly basis. This has helped to put an end to truancy and develop the desire to study. The children are given free uniforms and food. All these factors have gone to make this project very successful and attendance figures are extremely high.

The Goals of Project ARP Are Twofold:

PAX: In the first place they offer essential and pleasurable tuition to the children of Ana Clara, who previously played truant on the streets of this district with no future prospects or any incentives to study, whatsoever.

UNIGRANRIO: In the second place it fulfils the aims of the university to find an alternative space in which to carry out a practical course of study for its Pedagogic Course. This contributes to the quality of the formation of the apprentice teachers, providing them with the necessary comprehension of the dedication required to become a professional in education, with heightened ethics and a strong sense of citizenship. By creating a freer educational environment, participation is inevitable and collective expression and argument is enhanced. This project balances real-life constructions together with academic knowledge, making school work more pleasurable and providing a significantly well-rounded apprenticeship.

Both of these goals complement each other very well.

Project Caravana da Alegria (Caravan of Joy)

Assisted by Hospital Reviva, Três Amigos Transport and funded by Riopol – helping 21 children suffering from cranio-facial deformities with the goal of providing treatment and surgical operations.

Project Study Grant

Assisted by the University of ‘Unigranrio’ and ‘Cecampi’, helping 30 adults complete their First and Second Grades with supplementary classes on Saturdays.

Pilot Project Artesanal Skills & Recycling

Initiated and functioning in 2007 without sponsorship but with sporadic donations from PAX for materials and food. Ten youth of previously concluded projects who still haven’t entered the Job Market are the beneficiaries of this pilot project.

Pilot Project Mini-ARP

Initiated and functioning in 2007 without sponsorship, thanks to the voluntary action of educational students from ‘Unigranrio’ and the coordination of PAX. In this pilot project classes are provided for children who are still of pre-school age, offering pre-education for 10 children.

People Attended By Projects

Throughout the year, PAX empowered and trained 74 adolescents, provided 100 people (70 children and 30 adults) with skills, awareness of human rights and of their own potential and benefited 31 children. At a very conservative estimate, the target public for 2007 was 205 people directly and more than 5,000 people indirectly benefited from PAX activities, (including the families of the children in our projects and those people who participated or were involved in our campaigns).

Donations

The reality of these regions in Brazil is unlike anything experienced in the U.S. or Europe, with corruption and impunity reaching such astonishing levels of absurdity that it is in the interest of local government not to provide adequately good education, healthcare, security and least of all empowerment, in order to manipulate especially those communities who are vulnerable and at risk.

However, with the appropriate funding and donations the figures provided above can be dramatically increased and this scenario substantially reduced.

Qualification

In 2002 and 2003, through partnership with the IBAMA, UERJ and CEC-Tinguá, we develop qualification of 20 Environmental Agents in Xerém.

Tele-Classrooms

We organize two Tele-Classrooms - School formation for adults, with support of the Federal Government, Department of Labor and Job, Fund of Protection to the Work, State Office of the secretary of Education, PLANFOR and Foundation Roberto Marinho.

Project "Verde Que Te Quero Ver"

Partnership with the State Office of the secretary of Environment of the Rio de Janeiro, PETROBRÁS/REDUC and FEEMA, in the program of professional qualification Verde Que Te Quero Ver, For Environmental Communal Agents, during the period of October of 2000 to July of 2001.

Project Ecological Pottery

We participate for two semesters (1999/2001) of the Program Supportive Community, with the course of Ecological Pottery, for 60 young ceramicists, the which already are exposing and trading their diverse works and perfecting their knowledge conjugated with informal generation of yield. This project received maximum punctuation in all the evaluations.

Contest of Communal Projects

We earn the 1° place in the Contest of Communal Projects, realized by the EICOS / UFRJ, coordinators of the Program of Despoluição of the Stall of Guanabara / Communal Mobilization / Environmental Education.

Library Ferreira Gullar

After intense mobilization next to the community and to the authorities, we implement the 1° Public Library of Xerém - 'Ferreira Gullar', with support of the Federal, State, and Municipal Government, UNESCO, FAT, FNLIJ and UERJ, inaugurated in April of 2000, always with the participation of the poet Ferreira Gullar. We believe in the social function of the reading and of the art as generator and transformer of critical conscience, independent of economic and social level of each individual.

Center of Reference of the Movement of the Citizenship by the Waters

We host since November of 1998, the Center of Reference of the Movement of the Citizenship by the Waters of Xerém, In partnership with the INMETRO, Department of the Environment and CREA-Rio de Janeiro, in diverse associations of inhabitants and Hotels-Farm, distributing primers and educational stuff for the protection of the springs and of the local forests, performing denunciations, petitions and actions for the improvement of the local environment.

Consultative Advice of the Biological Reserve of the Tinguá

We participate of the Municipal Advice of the Environment of Duque de Caxias and of the Consultative Advice of the Biological Reserve of the Tinguá, managed by the IBAMA, with the intention of protect what still remain of green in the town, exposing solutions and participating of initiatives for recuperation of degraded areas.

Persons Attended by the Projects

Project Preservation of Human Nature - 70 youths qualified like multiplier, students of 22 schools of the region, families and friends
Project Ecological Pottery - 60 youths between 15 and 21 years
Project "Verde Que Te Quero Ver" -30 youths between 16 and 17 years
Joint efforts of Reforestation - around 800 youths between 10 and 24 years
Joint efforts of Cleaning of Rio and Slopes - around 1500 youths by joint effort
Events of Art and Ecology in the Plaza - 8 events with around 1000 each participants
Converses in the Schools - 30 lectures for around 40 students
Contest of Photograph - 120 youths between 7 and 14 years
Contest of Better Ecological large Poster -120 youths between 8 and 16 years
Public library - 500 youths between 7 and 18 years and 120 adults by month
Tele-Classrooms - School formation with 70 adults yearly

Coments of the Multipliers

Jardim Ana Clara

Raquel Ferreira Garcia

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF PAX?
It’s a very well structured organization with well-trained professionals who pass on information in a manner in which everyone can understand, no matter what their level of education may be.
WHAT CAN PAX DO FOR YOU?
I’d like there to be more sponsorship available to promote work with children and teenagers who become more and more involved in sexuality and the use of drugs that are shown in the media on a daily basis as something normal.
HAS PAX MADE ANY DIFERENCE IN YOUR LIFE?
I have come to value the benefits that nature has provided us with, which I didn’t value before, instructing and passing on the same values to others.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK ANY QUESTIONS TO OTHER PEOPLE WHO ENTER THE PAX WEBSITE?
Are you aware of Nature Preservation and the Preservation of Human Nature?
DO YOU HAVE ANY CRITICISMS ABOUT PAX?
I’d like there to be more resources available to enable us to reach more people.
DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY WHICH HAS NOT BEEN INCLUDED HERE?
No comments.

Josilene Gonçalves

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF PAX?
I think that it’s a beautiful and marvelous project which I love more and more each day. It’s a project that’s reaching all its goals here in our community and is winning over the youth since it has a young way of communicating.
WHAT CAN PAX DO FOR YOU?
PAX doesn’t have to do anything else. I only want one thing... that it never stops and continues existing. I don’t want PAX to do anything, since PAX is us, but that it always continues with this harmony and this union.
HAS PAX MADE ANY DIFERENCE IN YOUR LIFE?
Obviously it has. Since the moment I joined, my life changed completely. I’ve made new friends; I’ve learnt to communicate more and more each day. I don’t have anything bad to say about PAX, only good things.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK ANY QUESTIONS TO OTHER PEOPLE WHO ENTER THE PAX WEBSITE?
If there is some person with a good heart who has a good salary to help us create a CD of RAP music for PAX, it would be great.
DO YOU HAVE ANY CRITICISMS ABOUT PAX?
I don’t have any at the moment. I don’t remember and even if I did, it would be very little because the compliments are a thousand times better.
DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY WHICH HAS NOT BEEN INCLUDED HERE?
Make a gallery of photos of the kids of PAX on the website (the first group right up to the most recent). Make a PAX ORKUT or BLOG. Make on-line debates with previous kids who have recovered their lives. Ask for help from those who live abroad who want to volunteer and to help us with contributions.