Urban Permaculture
OPA joined Pracatum, a non-profit educational, cultural and community development organization and music school founded by the famous Brazilian musician Carlinhos Brown in the underserved community of Candeal in the city of Salvador. OPA took their work out to the streets of Candeal to implement an educational project of Urban Permaculture and Circus Arts in May and June of 2005. The project consisted of the transformation of a local square into a living outdoors classroom and demonstration of Permaculture techniques and Circus. Through Permaculture local children put their hands in the earth, some for the first time, to plant fruit trees. They learned to make good use of empty spaces in the neighborhood and turn them into functional and productive environments such as using vertical expansion in small spaces to build herb spirals and turn hilly areas into terraces. They begun to look at trash in a different way, making good use of materials that would be filling landfills like old tires and broken concrete slabs to make gardens and create functioning growing spaces. In the Circus Arts the children learned stilt walking, juggling and acrobatics. They worked their mind using critical thinking to create theater scenes with environmental themes, built masks and giant puppets with recycled materials and learned to work in a group with mutual accords, respecting one another, and participating of consensus decision-making process. OPA believes this project has an excellent format to implant innovative visions in urban communities based in the principles of sustainability, working with youth and children to make a difference in increasing the quality of life in their neighborhoods.
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