A Healthier Community: Monica Picavea on Transition Brasilandia’s Sustainable Health Fair
By rob hopkins 6th May 2014
Health care is a very important issue to Transition Brasilandia, especially because in a low income community such as ours, many diseases appear frequently. To help with the prevention and awareness raising about taking care of your health, the event is promoted by 5 Basic Health Units of the Territory and now 30 partners from Transition movement. The Sustainable Health Fair (Feira da Saúde Sustentável) takes place in the Linear Park of Damaceno neighborhood.
It brings together many activities that help people to learn how to live better, to better manage day to day stress and connect them with the health agencies. Last year was the third time we ran it, and it brought together more than 3000 people.
It features many activities which interpret health in an wider way, in ways that try to make people feel better about life, and happier. Activities include: breathing and stretching classes, walking and meditation, a trade fair, the passing on and preservation of traditional childrens games; AIDS awareness, oral hygeine, an mobile display about energy awareness from an energy company, a walk in Canivete Park, education on toxic plants and how to identify them, and campaigns about diseases such as dengue fever and rabies.
There are local talent shows for artists and performers in the community, which helps make them feel more confident, and builds self esteem. Many people go to this fair to share their knowledge, so a fascinating range of workshops are also offered, such as how to make a rainwater collection system.
The Health Fair is just one of the health projects of TT Brasilandia. Another great initiative is the Food Security Project, which connects the knowledge of how to cook with a wide range of vegetables (seeds, flowers, roots and fruit) to the community food gardens. We have already enabled 160 health agents with the social technology of Dra Clara Brandão, about how to make meals more nutritional, and how to grow and eat more unusual plants. This agents use to visit all the community and share their knowledge.
Today we have 3 food gardens in these three neighborhoods that we are more directly working with, Jardim Guarani, Jardim Damaceno e Jardim Paulistano, and we are trying to expand this project. Brasilandia is a community with 246, 000 people, and formed by some neighborhoods and many slums, located in North Zone of São Paulo, Brazil. Transition Brasilandia was the first projects of Transition in a slum in the world.
Credit for all photos: by Wilson Domeneghetti Monticelli