Novo Rumo Project

Novo Rumo is a social project which aims to reduce the accumulation of urban solid waste in São Tomé and Príncipe (STP), while giving them a new course through reuse.

In STP there’s heavily accumulated solid waste on the floors, the water courses, and the sea. There are many factors that contribute to this situation, such as: (1) the unstable political structure; (2) the relaxed social and cultural structures which end up influencing the country’s progress and development; (3) the lack of human resources, due to poor formations from the entities responsible for waste management; and (4) the existence of incorrect environmental practices from the population, caused by the low frequency of environmental education initiatives. In this way, there is no investment towards the education of the population and, therefore, they end up not knowing about the thematic.

Similarly, we verified there were two target audiences which deserved our special attention. On one hand, the inmates of the Prisão Central of STP and, on the other, youngsters between the ages of 15 and 25, from the city of Neves, in the Lembá district.

Thus, through workshops of reuse of plastic and metal waste with the inmates of the Prisão Central of STP, we intend to train them for a better reinstatement into society and the labor market. Furthermore, we believe that by enabling the São Tomé youngsters through the creation of innovative projects, we’ll enhance STP as an entrepreneurial and youth potentiator country.

Um Novo Rumo para os reclusos e para os jovens.

What do the solid waste, the youngsters and inmates have in common? Just as the waste is unvalued, discarded and, above all else, poorly used, the inmates and youth don’t find their skills being properly valued. Albeit for different reasons, both are excluded social groups, which makes for a bigger waste of human skills and an increase of risk behaviors. That all leads to our project: Novo Rumo. It is our responsibility to get a hold of all these different agents of society and enable them for the day to day activities, while potentiating and encouraging the creation of entrepreneurial work.

Seeing as Novo Rumo fits into environmental education and valuation, it is imperative to promote moments of training for these young people and inmates. In a developed society as the one we know, when we saw young people who don’t study nor work, we clearly saw youngsters without a course. What happens with these young people? When they don’t have a chance to pursue an academic and/or professional interest? How can they boost their own personal and social growth? The truth is, there aren’t many solutions and this leads to a misuse of skills. This is how Novo Rumo will affect their lives!

About the author

Novo Rumo is one of the many Projetos Spirit’18 from the year 2018. These projects are developed under the WACT SPIRIT program, promoted by WACT - We Are Changing Together, a Non-Governmental Development Organization (NGDO).

Novo Rumo is a social and entrepreneurial project consisting of 3 “changemakers”:

Carolina Pires, aged 21, is currently finishing her degree in Management and Territory Planning.

Mariana Cunha, aged 21, is currently on the 1st year of Bioengineering and Nanosystems Master’s Degree.

Susana Nóbrega, aged 24, is finishing her Clinical and Health Psychology Master’s dissertation.

Equipa Novo Rumo

The composing team reveals an interest in the environmental valuation and prevention, as well as an interest in protecting human health. Furthermore, they have practice in the fields of waste recycling and reuse, and have developed a great interest in their treatment process, also showing technical skills regarding the plastic arts. Concerning the team’s skills and resources, it makes sense to point out that the composing changemakers are linked to very different areas of study, which might be interesting and, even, very useful to the construction and implementation of the project.

Budget and due dates

In order to achieve the proposed goals for each workshop, we will need the following:

• Hot glue pistols and hot glue tubes
• Scissors, box cutters and box cutter razor packs
• Markers, pens, patafix and duct tape
• Reams of paper, A4 folders and scenery sheets
• Stapler and recharges
• Twine, fishing line, paint and brushes
• Commuting between the city of Neves and São Tomé in order to do the workshops in the Prisão Central of STP
• Identification for each trainee
• Prints and certificates

In this sense, we will need your help in order to make our project not only possible but also sustainable. To this end, we will be raising funds until August 25th of 2018!

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