PerifaSul 2050

2021

Collaborative workshops discuss priority themes for São Paulo’s southern outskirts until 2050

In February 2021, the ABH Foundation surveyed by filling out an online form with the residents of São Paulo’s south zone to understand the social issues that, for them, deserve to be highlighted by 2050. This process was called PerifaSul 2050 and counted on the partnership of IDIS to co-facilitate it.

Based on the survey “What do we want for the southern periphery in 2050?”, we understand the priorities of the territory and, together with the community, we started a series of workshops to validate the result and plan actions that contribute directly to overcoming the challenges of each chosen theme.

The role of the ABH Foundation in this process is to guide local actors in this journey of knowledge, joint construction, and transformation, creating bridges between them and external actors, supporting them in the discovery of the assets they have in their power, thus strengthening the network action.

“All our actions only make sense if there is participation and involvement of the people in the territory, if they see themselves as part of the process, understanding their role and how they can contribute to achieving the common goals,” says Marina Fay, Executive Director of the ABH Foundation.

Workshops PerifaSul 2050

The first workshop took place on the last Saturday of February. Together with the local players, it was possible to analyze the survey data and identify the population’s desires and demands concerning their territory.

“It’s great to be able to be side by side with social, educational, and cultural references, reading about the current situation, and having access to various perspectives on the reality of the territory. It is constant learning, diversity in thinking, elaborating, hoping, and planning. It’s a real power that contributes to advance in the path of change and construction of social equality and overcoming prejudice”, says Alanshark, a member of the Fora de Frequência Collective, located in Jd. Angela.

Besides opening a space for listening and exchanging ideas for the formation of priority themes, the objective of the workshops is to establish lines of action and activities in the short, medium, and long term for each of them

The themes defined serve as a basis for the following workshops, from which it will be possible to present ideas and practical actions so that problems can be solved, and challenges overcome.

According to Dandara Souza, a member of the AquilombArte collective, the workshops have been positive.

“For me, who is only 20 years old, being in a workshop building something so big and powerful has been an honor; I am learning too much in each workshop! Something that fascinates me a lot in this process is how we can complement each other, each within our area and according to our own experiences. If there were more spaces like these, we would evolve much more, where there is respect and a healthy exchange; I see our workshops like this, a very healthy exchange space,” she says.

 

So far, four workshops have been held and, according to Marina Fay, “it has been a vibrant and aggregating process, with a great potential for impact. Who knows, maybe at the end of this process, we won’t have a theory of change for the southern periphery of São Paulo!”

Priority themes

To cover the themes presented, the ABH Foundation, together with community actors, validated three umbrella themes that embrace the main issues that residents of the southern periphery feel deserve visibility. They are:

  • Productive Inclusion;
  • Community Development;
  • Dignified Life and Welfare.

“I believe that all the topics chosen are extremely relevant and, in a way, all are associated with basic rights of life in society. Thus, to provide actions that improve all these social fields is to contribute a lot to the human development in the southern territory of the city of São Paulo”, says André Benelli, member of the Fora de Frequência Collective

It is worth remembering that the umbrella themes, as the name says, contemplate several other sub-themes that are being addressed and discussed at each meeting. At each workshop, the social players define the priority areas and outline activities, goals, objectives, and expected results. This way, everyone will be able to walk in the same direction toward this common goal.

According to the Executive Director of the ABH Foundation, one of the workshops’ goals is to allow people to have more authority to be the protagonists of their history, their development, and their dreams.

“The year 2050 is just around the corner, and I hope to see people able to choose their profession, to study in the area of their interest, to have decent housing, treated sewage, health, access to culture, and the right to produce it, sports and the right to practice them, and those entrepreneurs have the conditions to achieve their goals,” says Alan.

Together we can change!