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The member Reinaldo Oliveira, P&O at Odebrecht Infrastructure Mexico, wants to know:

“How does the partnership between the Family Houses and the Cooperatives integrated into PDCIS happens?”

Check the answer out!

In the Southern Bahia Lowlands, the Family Houses and the Strategic Cooperatives integrate the human and productive aspects of the PDCIS – Development and Integrated Growth Program with Sustainability, a program of the Odebrecht Foundation. The Family Houses are civil associations that offer an education connected with the reality of the countryside. In 2015, more than 935 youths graduated or have undergone formation in them. As for the cooperatives, which have amongst its members more than 820 farmers and farming families, they are responsible for the cultivation of pineapple, banana, cassava, sweet cassava, fish and hearts-of-palm.

The PDCIS’s challenge is to be a socio-economic and environmentally sustainable development model focused on establishing the youth in the countryside, fully integrated into their families and communities. For this happen in actuality, the synergy between education and work is fundamental: the youths have access to a contextualized education and become rural entrepreneurs, having the opportunity to join in cooperatives in order to add value and to market their products and for income generation as well. All of these connected with citizenship awareness and respect for the environment.

By June 2015, more than 100 students and alumni have become members of the PDCIS’ cooperatives. As a result, over 20% of all associates, the family farmers, come from the Family Houses. This result is also a fruit of the investments made in the productive projects developed by the youths who start their own productive practices and activities which are an integral part of their formation process. It is also at the educational institution that they have their first experience in managing resources, awakening thus their interest for the agricultural business, while obtaining real financial returns.

In the four Family Houses that are part of the PDCIS, students receive technical formation in agriculture and livestock, agribusiness, forestry or aquaculture. With qualified studies and partnerships established with research centers such as Embrapa – Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, the youths are able to acquire scientific technologies and learn new techniques – such as pest control and soil management – to the benefit of the producers from all the cooperatives, ensuring higher quality and higher productivity for their crops. In addition to that some of the former students of these educational institutions become Educational Assistants in the PDCIS’ Cooperatives, acting as knowledge multipliers of the acquired in Education.

The Family Houses and the Cooperatives rely on the resources originated from various social partners. These are companies such as BNDES – Brazilian Development Bank, which supports the program with infrastructure related investments, and large retailers such as Walmart, linked directly to the cooperatives. As investors for the Family Houses there are, among others, the Bahia Department of Education and the Mitsubishi Corporation. Interconnected activities of education and generation of work and income, these institutions work in partnership for sustainable development, creating opportunities for people to evolve and be agents of their own destiny.