Fundaçao Nuarro town meeting

We are Fundaçao Nuarro

The people of Nanatha have already set up Anan (Associação dos Naturais e Amigos de Nanatha) because the community felt they were facing major problems, suffering from poverty and diseases without having the ability to fight against it. They have joined together to empower their strengths. They were (financially) supported and encouraged by Divers Eco-operation (DEO).

DEO is an ecologically aware and socially responsible tourism project and strives for poverty alleviation and overall development of the local community of Nanatha. DEO is linked to the nearby Nuarro lodge.

Read more about the Nuarro lodge here.

With the existence of the lodge and the ‘Memorandum of Understanding’, the agreement between the lodge and the community, the control on this project is assured. In this MOU is agreed on the rights and obligations of both parties. Nuarro sponsors the community with a fixed amount per month, this creates a certain cash flow for the community projects.

In cooperation with Fundaçao Nuarro Foundation, DEO set up a couple of programs to help the community on their main concerns:

Community Centre

Building a community centre with 2 school buildings and the Fundaçao Nuarro building.

Education

Nuarro Lodge has build 2 school buildings in Nanatha where elementary education is provided by governmental teachers to the children of the village and other villages nearby.

Water Project

Clean drinking water is provided for school children. Through an advanced reversed osmosis water purifying system on solar energy, the salt ground water is filtered and distributed to the children by the Activistas.

Agriculture

Vegetable gardens are created to provide the community more variety of food. Due to salt ground and harsh circumstances, this remains challenging.

The Market

A local market is build to increase the economic activity in the village. The market enhances the turnover rate of the money that is put in the community by employing over 150 workers from the village.

Hygiene

The activista’s and Feliciano teach the people of the villages nearby about the importance of hygiene. They focus on increasing one's hygiene despite limited resources such as soap and water. Together with the locals we have built two sustainable bucketshowers, which are used every day.


Our Approach

Setting up an education program on health subjects

The first objective is to provide the community of Nanatha with an education program on health subjects to improve knowledge about health, hygiene, and common diseases. A Village Health Committee (VHC) consisting of 15-20 people, also known as the activistas, helped to set up the programme. They are volunteers and are trained on subjects as malnutrition, diarrhoea, hygiene, malaria, Sexual Transmitted Diseases, HIV/AIDS and family planning. These problems cause the highest mortality and morbidity and are relatively easy to prevent. The activistas are responsible for passing this knowledge over to community the community

Setting up a program for education, agriculture and water management

After several years working on health subjects, we have extended the program with education, agriculture projects and water management. 3 School-buildings have been realised, besides better housing for the school-teachers. In total there are 5 classrooms for primary pupils and 2 classrooms for infants. There are 2 vegetable gardens, maintained by the local people. Clean water is supplied at the school, for the children. This system will be extended, so clean water will be available for all people.

Cooperation with other NGOs

The goal is to collaborate more with NGOs that are active in the area on the problems of Nanatha and their need for structural help.

We pursue to be a well-established base for different non-governmental organisations and public health campaigns and to implement programmes that concentrate on preventing diseases and promoting health, clean water, and better knowledge of agriculture.