Once per month, the business communicators who are part of the Odebrecht Organization meet in the city of São Paulo for the meeting about the Image and Media Audit. Produced by the communication agency CDN, an Odebrecht partner, the audit summarizes the Organization’s main image indicators, analyzing the quality of the media exposure during the current month.

The November meeting was different. On November 8, 25 communicators traveled to the Bahia Southern Lowlands to discuss media indicators and exchange experiences with the Bahia Southern Lowlands Environmental Protection Area Mosaic Program for Development and Growth Integrated with Sustainability (PDICS). The visitors were received by Norberto Odebrecht and Mauricio Medeiros, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Executive Chairman of the Odebrecht Foundation, respectively, in the municipality of Presidente Tancredo Neves.

Supported by the Odebrecht Foundation in partnership with the government, private initiative and civil society, PDCIS has the challenge of transforming a rural area with major environmental heritage into a prosperous and dynamic region, helping young talents get established in the field. This is what was pointed out by Mauricio Medeiros: “We understand the youth to be valuable agents of development and leaders of their own transformation, capable of passing on the knowledge acquired to their families and the community in general, improving everyone’s conditions of life,” said Medeiros.

For Norberto Odebrecht, communication is the vehicle of knowledge. “Both require culture for the practice of interpretive and propositional knowledge, which allows for results based on information that leads to facts and which structures and complements acts that lead to results,” he said. After that, the group toured the installations of the Presidente Tancredo Neves Rural Producers’ Cooperative which, together with the Presidente Tancredo Neves Rural Family Home (CFR-PTN), forms the Manioc and Fruit Production Strategic Cooperative Alliance.

For André Paraná, from Odebrecht Engenharia Industrial, who had already visited the region in 2004, the progress is notorious. “The youth have a perspective of the future, of staying in the region and offering something more to society,” said Paraná. “I see that they are, in fact, leaders in the communities in which they work. “This enchants anyone who comes through here,” he said. During the lunch, Members interacted with the CFR-PTN students. “Hearing from them how important they are for the communities in which they live is an incredible experience,” said Barbara Nitto, from Odebrecht Oil & Gas. “They are a reference and want to continue with the training to contribute toward the region,” she said.

Part of the group completed a second day of interaction with the institutions that are part of PDCIS. Also on November 8, Josiane Costa, from Odebrecht Energia; Thaís Reiss, from Odebrecht United States; Thaís Rosa, from CDN; Pilar Baella, from Odebrecht Peru, and Ana Carolina Martins and Taynée Vieira, from Odebrecht Infraestrutura, also learned more about the actions supported by the Pratigi Environmental Protection Area Guardian Association and the Land Conservation Organization. On the following day, they visited the head offices of the Igrapiúna Rural Family House, the company Ambial Agroindústria – responsible for the heart of palm processing –, the Agroforest Family Home, located in Nilo Peçanha and the Pratigi Environmental Protection Area Rural Producers’ Cooperative.