BOX 5.
THE LIFE PROJECT IN BRAZIL: CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT ON A
SMALL SCALE - THE SCAVENGERS OF BELO HORIZONTE
The efforts of LIFE in Belo
Horizonte, Brazil, are particularly worthy of note.
Within the urban area, the project has contributed to
building up the capacity of CBOs by identifying their
development needs and providing support to them in
designing and managing small, community-based projects.
With a grant of $30,000, the project managed to build up
the managerial and entrepreneurial capacity of garbage
scavengers while at the same time contributing to the
solution of specific environmental and social problems.
As a result of the project:
- disposable paper is no longer to
be found as garbage in the streets. Papers are
collected and recycled.
- the scavengers themselves are no
longer to be found in the streets. They now have
facilities, donated by the municipality, to
support their operation and they are fully
engaged in making it a success;
- the scavengers have received
technical training to make the process more
efficient.
There are now 30 people working in the
main scavenger group. They now have a permanent job and
their employment is sustainable. The income of the
scavengers depends on their willingness to work. There is
a strong degree of ownership for the project and the
company that it has created.
This small sub-project has developed
its own performance indicators. These include: the amount
of paper collected by each person, the volume of payments
to individuals involved, and the amount and weight of
paper that is processed, along with revenues from sales.
The project has also contributed to a
change of attitude on the part of those involved. It has
managed to change the mentality of a group of people
mostly lacking in any formal education. They are now
learning to manage this project, apparently successfully,
as a small, private company. The surrounding community
has developed a very high opinion of this project, and
along with it, of LIFE and UNDP.
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