With social and environmental actions, the company is helping to promote and strengthen quilombola culture

With the aim of encouraging cultural practices and activist organization among residents, Neoenergia has built a cultural space for the Boa Esperança quilombola community, located in rural Areal (RJ). The inauguration of the Manoel Miquilina da Costa Barboza Space will take place this Sunday (29), at 9am, and will feature various activities. These include workshops on reusing waste, a capoeira performance, a round table discussion on healthy eating and the delivery of the book collection to the Quilomboteca.

"The whole community has been invited to take part in this special moment. It's the realization of an old dream of the people who live there and we're very happy to be able to contribute to access to culture," says Daniel Vilas Boas Daibert, Neoenergia's Land and Environmental Superintendent .

Construction of the Cultural Space began in June 2024. From the outset, the community was involved in the project, such as defining the location. The space has around 140 m² of construction, three rooms, bathrooms, a kitchen and will have a library, reading room and space for a mini-museum on the history of the community.

To set up the library, a survey was carried out of books by mostly black authors for children, young people and adults, in various literary and Afro-Brazilian genres. A spreadsheet containing the curatorship of the selected works, with a brief presentation of the authors and a summary description of these books, was presented and delivered to the community for validation. Neoenergia donated more than 100 books that will make up the library's collection.

During the construction of the space, various social and environmental activities were offered to the 400 residents of the quilombo community. The residents had the opportunity to take part in educational workshops. The aim was to promote the formation and development of citizens' social and environmental responsibility.

The actions took place in a practical, playful and interactive way, every three months. Various support materials were used, including projection presentations, videos, images, drawing and writing, among others, with the aim of establishing the proposed content.

In all, four environmental education workshopswere held. Among the topics of interest to the community were:reforestation with practical seedling production; reusing waste; and joint efforts to replant seedlings.

"All the actions were based on the demands of the community itself, valuing its protagonism and the local way of life. Quilombola lands represent the maintenance of the country's history and culture," concludes Anísia Cristiane Ferreira Lima, Neoenergia's environmental analyst.