Words by Attilio Zolin, CASA Socio-Environmental Fund
Just an hour outside of São Paulo, Brazil, indigenous communities are alive and well preserving their traditional culture. The Tenondé Porã Indigenous Land is one of those places, home to four Guarani villages extending from the municipality of São Paulo to the coast of São Vicente.
Within the four villages, there are schools and health centers, but many still lack basic services, including basic sanitation. The Paulista Environmental Managers Association, in partnership with medical students and professors, visited the village of Guyrapa-Ju. There, they noticed that many children in the community had spots on their skin caused by diseases related to a lack of sanitation.
To improve sanitation in the village, the group created the Ecosystems and People Program, an initiative funded by CASA Socio-Environmental Fund (Global Greengrants Fund’s sister organization in Brazil). The grantees – Guarani Village Guyrapa-Ju– utilized a $4,240 grant to construct 4 eco-toilets with treatment systems.
These compostable toilets function by adding wood, sawdust, and fire ashes to solid waste. The university staff then analyze whether or not the material can become fertilizer for certain plants in the village. The liquids are sent to a separate basin where they are diluted and absorbed by banana trees.
These strategies have brought noticeable improvement in the health and lives of members of the community, and the work isn’t stopping there.
The Guarani school currently receives processed, unhealthy food from the government which is unsatisfactory in providing adequate nutrition. In response, the group is now in the initial phases of constructing an organic garden for the production of traditional Guarani food, including different types of maize, cassava and vegetables. This new initiative will promote food security, improved public health, and environmental sustainability for the local community.
According to project coordinator Edmilson Gonçalves: “The project Somos Todos Guaranis, Somos Guyrapa-Ju is a cycle, we started with basic sanitation because it does not make sense to have a garden and other things without sanitation. This was a first step towards building a sustainable and ecological village.”
Learn more about the sanitation project, and impactful results, in the video below.