Sesc SP

Environment – A serious problem affecting the big cities is the enormous amount of garbage thrown away by people daily. For the experts the only alternative to getting rid of it is recycling it in a large-scale operation. Besides preventing the problem caused by refuse dumps, which put in danger the environment and the population health, recycling garbage business creates jobs and provides income for people who work in collecting the waste material.

History – More than 200 years after the finest flowering of the Jesuit Reductions located in Southern Brazil, the so-called Missions, a group of Guarani indians return to that site, today fallen in ruin, to establish a village. Although the Guarani culture has been attacked during centuries, they have kept their traditions, beliefs and the language. Today they survive in the village on selling handicraft to tourists, and they are fighting to regain their ancient way of life.

Human resources – In order to prevent the increasing of the technological gap between Brazil and the rest of the world, the nation attempts to keep home its most skilled and qualified scientists and researchers. But it is difficult to prevent their exodus from the country, for working conditions offered them abroad are not to be refused, as in possibilities of self-improvement as in quality of life.

Housing – In Sao Paulo increases the number of partnership between university students and low-income population for a housing project. On the periphery of the city they work collectively building houses, and in the slum areas of the town the houses are being repaired in order to improve those people’s standard of living.

Memory – The Alcantara Machado family, one of the most traditional in Sao Paulo, celebrates at this turn of the century the centenary of two of its members’ birthday: the brothers Brasilio Machado Neto and Antonio Alcantara Machado. Both of them made history: Brasilio as an entrepreneur, and Antonio as a writer.

Ecology – The government of the former Province of Sao Paulo ordered the preservation of the exuberant region of the Serra da Cantareira at the end of the nineteenth century. Few decades later the entire city was supplied with water coming from the Cantareira springs. Today the area is being threatened by real estate investments, irregular occupancy practices and construction of highways.