Setting up the Juruti Mine includes a series of actions and projects that will improve the quality of life and the practice of sustainable development in the region.
The Pajiroba Project is just one of these actions that is putting its money into strengthening community organizations and using their power as a strategy for reducing social inequality and generating employment and income.
The project’s mission is to contribute to improvements in the quality of life of communities living in the Juruti Municipality, in Pará State, and in the surrounding areas, through a process of community development that values agricultural production and handicrafts, as well as local culture and the use of new techniques, all of which are in harmony with the environment.
 The work is directed at nearly 450 families that live through family farming in 21 communities in Juruti and offers rural technical assistance and support for the producing organization. Furthermore, it is also aimed at key community organizations, whose management should be strengthened through the Project. Activities started in October, 2006 and should last nearly three years.
During the whole time the Pajiroba Project is active the main goal will be to invest in the manioc production chain, one of the locally grown crops. Investment in the process for diversifying crops will also have an impact on the income of these communities. There will also be support for the development of quality, original handicraft products that have a local identity.
This whole initiative is the result of a partnership between Alcoa Alumínio, Alcoa Foundation and the Alcoa Institute that has the support of the Juruti Association of Craftspeople, the Juruti Women’s Association, the Center for Studies and Worker Training of the Lower Amazon Region (CEFT-BAM), East and West Amazon (Embrapa), the Juruti Town Administration, the Juruti Rural Workers Union, the Inter-American Foundation, the Acesita Foundation, the Otacílio Coser Foundation, the Arcor Brasil Institute, the Camargo Corrêa Institute, the Hedging Griffo Institute, the Holcim Institute and ICE, the Entrepreneurial Citizenship Institute. The project is being administered by technicians from the ICE, which has nominated three of its professionals to help implement the proposed stages.
|
