Supported organisations and initiatives
Meet the six organisations selected in the GWGAB Call and the six initiatives implemented during the 12 months of the project supported by the British Council within the strategy of gender and race inclusion in education.
Quilombola Association Conceição das Crioulas – AQCC
About: AQCC’s mission is to promote the development of Conceição das Crioulas, a quilombola community located in the municipality of Salgueiro, 550 km from Recife, strengthening political organisation, ethnic-cultural identity and the struggle for the quilombola cause.
Founding year: 2000
Initiative: Project “Franciscas, Marias and Dandaras: owners of their destiny” was designed to encourage the development of interpersonal skills, such as leadership and oratory skills, in addition to strengthening individual and collective self-esteem, of at least 30 students from the José Mendes school. Popular community educators led the initiative, planned and carried out activities such as conversation circles, workshops and seminars related to the context of Conceição das Crioulas.
Location: Conceição das Crioulas, arid backlands of the municipality of Salgueiro, in Pernambuco state.
Challenges: Mobilising young people in a post-pandemic context; facing difficulties related to public transport in the territory; adapting activities to the school schedule, which is also different from non-quilombola schools; absence of wi-fi Internet in the region.
Solutions: School involvement and activities carried out during the school term; dialogue with the school community to align the project’s themes with the subjects agreed upon in the classroom; adequacy of activities according to available technological tools.
Group of Dandaras no Cerrado Black Women
About: The organisation is an arm of the black feminist movement and exists with the aim of strengthening the fight to build a fair, plural society, without racism and sexism. To this end, the Dandaras invest in training black women and adolescents by promoting educational activities on gender, race, housing, human rights and reproductive health.
Founding year: 2002
Initiative: “Investiga Menina!” encourages black girls to choose careers in the exact sciences. Its action takes place on two fronts: 1) pedagogical monitoring at school with direct intervention in the school curriculum; 2) and intercultural experiences, in which the students talk about the objects of study of black scientists both in the state of Goiás and in other regions of Brazil.
Location: Goiânia (GO)
Challenges: Alignment with the school schedule; difficulty in carrying out activities due to the election period; the number of people impacted was greater than expected; difficulty in aligning the project schedule with the schedule of teachers and guests.
Solutions: Dialogue with the school, scheduling activities in advance, scheduling flexibility and rescheduling classes whenever necessary; optimisation of time and activities, involvement of the school to help structure activities; internal organisation and replacement of teachers.
#ElasNoPoder (WomeninPower)
About: The organisation began its work based on questions from the founders about the limited space for women in Brazilian politics. Currently, #ElasNoPoder operates in 4 major areas: political training for women; Impulsa platform; search; advocacy and social mobilisation.
Founding year: 2018
Initiative: The organisation developed the project “Girls at School” with the theme: “I am a black girl now and a black woman in power of the future”. With the intention of reaching 50 black girls – including indigenous and quilombola girls – from the final years of lower secondary education (8th and 9th grades in Brazil), in the Federal District (DF), the initiative set up a training cycle with conversation circles, workshops and lectures with subjects about women, political training, contact with black leaders, among other activities, in order to encourage the participants’ self-recognition as agents of social and political change.
Location: Federal District (DF)
Challenges: Difficulty in having a partner school that provides the space for carrying out activities; ensuring that the project’s disclosure reached the intended target audience; socioeconomic difficulties, mainly subsistence, among participating families; even if the topics addressed do not favour any candidacy, the electoral period proved to be a challenge.
Solutions: Partnership with the Ceilândia Interscholastic Language Centre (CILC); face-to-face dissemination in educational and commercial establishments; use of sound trucks; investment in paid traffic on social media; flexibility of registrations; provision of 3 meals instead of just 1; provision of meals also for parents and guardians who accompanied the students; creation of a WhatsApp group for quick contact with students and family members; close relationship with family members and guardians; guarantee of financial assistance to participants to cover costs; assessment and preparation for the next editions of the project to take place outside the election period.
Luiz Freire Cultural Centre (CCLF)
About: CCLF is a non-governmental organisation that works for the right to cultural education and the right to communication. With extensive operations in the backlands of Pernambuco, the organisation has been present in the city of Mirandiba for five years, where it has become a reference in quilombola and indigenous education.
Founding year: 1973
Initiative: “Girl Talk” was developed with the aim of bringing together 40 black girls from the final years of lower secondary education (8th and 9th grades in Brazil), from public schools around the historic site of Olinda, Pernambuco state. The inclusion of the topics of mental health and self-care was seen as fundamental by the organisation. For this, they had the support of psychologists who promoted community therapy for the girls and carried out the necessary referrals in specific cases.
Location: Historic centre of the city of Olinda, state of Pernambuco, and operates in the backlands of Pernambuco state and in the city of Mirandiba, where it develops quilombola education projects.
Challenges: Difficulty in mobilising the project’s public, due to Olinda’s full-time school schedule; gaining trust and ensuring the support of family members; impoverishment of families, causing many girls to become responsible for household chores and caring for children and the elderly who live in their homes.
Solutions: Wide dissemination both online and in person, of the events; partnerships with local actors; expansion of the target public from the region of Olinda to the metropolitan region of Recife; meeting with the participants’ families and guardians to present the project, CCLF’s work and to establish a dialogue on the activities to be developed; payment of allowance to participants.
Geledés – Institute of the Black Woman
About: The non-governmental organisation emerged in the country’s redemocratisation process with the aim of ensuring the effectiveness of the right to citizenship. It established itself in civil society for the fight for equality, dignity and, mainly, with a focus on public policies seeking to guarantee the rights of women and the black population.
Founding year: 1988
Initiative: The GWGAB project seeks to help keep girls in the education system based on the methodology of action among peers, thinking that “women are the best protectors of other women”. In this way, 18 guardians of the project were selected, black and non-black girls, but always in a situation of risk for the educational path, who were already involved in political and communication actions. The guardians were the connection with other girls, totaling 36 participants.
Location: São Paulo, State of São Paulo
Challenges: Difficulty in executing the partnership agreement with the initially planned partner; the socioeconomic issues of the families made it difficult for the students to join or remain in the course, since some are responsible for taking caring of other children or the elderly, in addition to household chores; the presence of the participants was impacted because many of them had domestic responsibilities in addition to school tasks; due to the high vulnerability of the families, it was not possible to be certain that the aid provided by the project was actually used to pay for the internet and not other family needs.
Solutions: Direct partnership with a public school located in Tiradentes, east São Paulo; expansion of the project for students in lower secondary education; partnership with the local Centre for Children and Adolescents; dialogue with the school to resume commitments made at the beginning of the project; the presence of a school representative who helped Geledés throughout the project in dialogue with family members demanding commitment from those responsible.
Brazilian Association of Black Male and Female Researchers – ABPN
About: ABPN is a civil, non-profit, philanthropic, welfare, cultural, scientific and independent association, whose purpose is teaching, research and academic-scientific extension on topics of interest to black people in Brazil.
Founding year: 2000
Initiative: “Minas Negras” (Black Girls) is a project conceived by researchers linked to ABPN, from the research centre on black feminism, and took place simultaneously in six education centres. The project was divided into two phases: the first focused on the theme of gender and race with the entire school community, for all students who wish to participate, including school boards and teachers in practice. In the second, 42 black girls from the last grades of lower secondary education (8th and 9th grades in Brazil) were selected to participate in conversation circles, interviews with women, group work, writing processes, among other initiatives.
Location: Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Minas Gerais and Paraná.
Challenges: Suspension of classes and difficulty in meeting the centre’s coordinators and their team for the following reasons: several cases of Covid-19 in schools; teachers’ strike which affected all centres; adversities related to the local climate, such as excessive rain or cold.
Solutions: Provision of internet (3G/4G) for students; creation of printed interactive handouts; book acquisition.