The municipalities of Ibirapitanga, Igrapiúna, Ituberá, Nilo Peçanha and Piraí do Norte, located in the Pratigi Environmental Protection Area (EPA) in the Bahia Southern Lowlands, will be benefitted with the implementation of the Pratigi for Education project. The initiative is designed to strengthen the educational bases of these cities and also improve the students' learning process, leveraging good index scores, such as region's Development and Basic Education Index (IDEB).

On February 25, the project launch event was held at the head office of the Pratigi EPA Guardian Association (AGIR), located in Serra da Papuã, municipality of Ibirapitanga. The institution is associated with the Bahia Southern Lowlands Environmental Protection Area Mosaic Program for Development and Growth Integrated with Sustainability (PDCIS), supported by the Odebrecht Foundation and public and private partners.

The occasion also marked the signing of a Cooperation Agreement between the Pratigi EPA Inter-Municipal Consortium (CIAPRA); Chapada Education and Research Institute (ICEP) and AGIR. Through the initiative, the region's schools will earn qualified professionals through educational coordination efforts and courses and workshops that are designed to make the learning process of children and adolescents more dynamic.

"Pratigi for Education” is a collaborative project that benefits from the participation of several actors, making it possible to transform the local reality," emphasized Cybele Amado, Executive Director of ICEP. The institution works to improve public education and undertakes similar work in the region of Chapada Diamantina, also located in Bahia, and in Pernambuco in partnership with Odebrecht TransPort. Its mission is to promote the training of educators through courses designed to guarantee advances in the faculty's level of learning, in addition to qualifying the technicians at the Departments of Education and school principals to offer more effective and efficient administration.

For Binho Marques, Brazil's Ministry of Education (MEC) Teaching System Coordination Secretary (SASE), these initiatives strengthen the elaboration of a regional education plan. "We have a great challenge in front of us and we want to learn from projects like this one in order to offer quality education to everyone," said Marques.

The resources for the project total some R$ 1 million and were raised through the Tribute to the Future program, which supports the actions certified by the Odebrecht Foundation. "ICEP has earned the highest IDEB scores in Bahia with its action in Chapada Diamantina," said Clovis Faleiro, responsible for Institutional Relations at the Odebrecht Foundation and leader of Tribute to the Future. "This experience will help reverse the situation of Primary Education in the EPA. With the support of IBM via income tax-deductible donations through the Tribute to the Future program, we are helping to transform this reality," emphasized Faleiro.