Trash collection in Jardim Pantanal

We teamed up with Instituto Alana this week to run a Promise Tracker workshop in a region of São Paulo called Jardim Pantanal, located about 40 miles out of the city center near the airport. Alana has had a presence in the community for 20 years and the region is notorious for favelas with terrible sanitary conditions and chronic flooding. We worked with an amazing group of girls 15-17 years old from Alana’s workforce training program and leaders of the local residents association.
They team decided to focus on sanitation and created 2 campaigns – one documenting trash dumping sites in the community, the other assessing local resident’s practices around trash disposal (whether they knew official trash collection days, separated trash, and whether they knew of the local recycling site).
The inter-generational exchange was a powerful experience for all participants – adolescents bringing a comfort with and excitement about the technology, and older participants offering a familiarity with the neighborhood and nuanced understanding of some of the chronic challenges in the area.
One of the first closing observations from the president of the resident’s association was how powerful the tool and process are for helping residents and youth from areas like Jardim Pantanal to develop a sense of identity and ownership related to their neighborhood.
We look forward to working with Alana and this team on an ongoing basis to implement Promise Tracker for other campaigns in the region.