Author: Klaus Fischer, ISWA, University of Stuttgart

The World Social Forum 2008 took place in January in Stuttgart, Germany. The Forum is an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs, and other civil society organizations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, to formulate proposals, to share their experiences freely, and to network for effective action.
One of the participants in this meeting was Father Spinola of Saint John Maria Vianney's, Lapa, Sao Paulo, Brazil who introduce the project "Reciclázaro" that combines social and environmental issues in one.
Reciclázaro is an NGO that has been operating in Brazil since it was founded in 1997. Reciclázaro aims to work in the social and the environmental fields, where social marginalized people are its priority. Due to the extreme poverty conditions in Sao Paulo, this group includes a wide spectrum of people: homeless men and women, drug addicts, violence victims, and old and handicapped persons.
Different programs, target at the various groups, are carried out to reintegrate these persons into main stream society. Almost 950 people take daily part in the initiative implemented by Reciclázaro.
The organization houses people in need in one of their four doss houses. Afterwards a program is developed for each person to improve their skills and thus guarantee their income and another one to improve their education level (literacy, reintegration into the school system, and introduction to the communicative relationship).

How everything began

Reciclázaro's history aims to a set of environmental actions initiated in 1997 when Father José Carlos Spínola (founder of the organization) mobilized some young members of the congregation of Saint John Maria Vianney's, Lapa, Sao Paulo to clean the Cornelia Square,  west of Sao Paulo. This place was dirty and occupied by poor people (without any work perspective). Nobody could guess that a simple cleaning action would start a recycling program of solid waste.
However, before being able to start a formal program, Father Spínola and volunteers of the congregation had to learn more about the situation of the people living on the streets, their problems and the structure of their relationships.
For three years Reciclázaro was engaged with the build-up of a social care program: it opened a house "Saint Lazarus" with the aim to offer several services (such as dentists, psychologists, advocates, support for the enforcement of human rights, health care, assistance for obtaining personal documents) in order to help those people living on the streets.
The good examples generated credibility – the mayor of Sao Paulo invited Reciclázaro to participate in the public policy introducing social and environmental issues. It became reality: Reciclázaro was invited to administrate a bigger infrastructure, and in the following years they were able to open three other houses: "Simon" (for ancient people), "Marta and Maria" (for female violence victims) and "Saint Lazarus II" (for men living below the poverty line).
Nowadays the organization offers some important services in its houses, such as literacy, an intensive health program (that includes prevention and successive campaigns against Aids and sexually transmissible diseases), and big workshops (offering continuously new courses to support the return of homeless people into main stream working environment). Concurrently, two workshops for about 100 people are run to teach them how to produce in entrepreneurial practices way. This corporate spirit, as a matter of fact, leads to their independency, helping them to gain back their self-esteem.

The interface with the environment
Waste acquired a new mean in the Cornelia Square. The selective waste collection was the first working experience for the social marginalized people. A great variety of wastes (such as plastic, paper, metal, and glass) that were disposed of by the neighbours of this location became valuable materials in the hands of these poor people.
This systematic selective collection did not only generate jobs for many people, but also the possibility to overcome their drug addiction. Actually, forty six men are registered in the program. They collect, press and sell these valuable materials to the recycling industry.
Another environmental project consists of transforming the recycled material materials into handicrafts, such as furniture, fashion, and decoration accessories. With the sale of these products, poor people are able to generate their own income.
The selective waste collection leads also to a positive environmental impact, since it reduces the waste quantities that are brought to landfills. In this way, around 100 tons of waste was recovered back into the material flow cycle. As Father Spínola says "Plastic becomes plastic again, glass becomes glass again, metal becomes metal again, paper becomes paper again, and human beings become human beings again."
However nothing could be done without the support of the community. Reciclázaro is the "child" of the community of Saint John Maria Vianney's. Thousands of families help to collect recyclables and spread concepts of environmental education among children and teenagers of many regions in the city.

For more information contact:

www.reciclazaro.org.br

contato@reciclazaro.org.br

Phone: 0 55 11 3871-5972 – São Paulo – SP – Brazil

Father Jose Carlos Spinola and Marcos Moreira Vaz