Training young people in the favelas

"The scale of Veolia Environnement's commitments shows that this is not just for show."

Régis Hahn

The Florianopolis region in Brazil is typical of conditions in this huge country: great economic dynamism side by side with genuine poverty. The favelas with their very poor inhabitants are not very far from the tourist installations that spring up in the summer.

But the young people who live there have great difficulty finding a first job, largely because they cannot present the professional qualifications required. They are unable to attend the training institutions in the city center because they don't have the money to pay the fares. They spend their days desperately trying to earn enough money to stay alive.

Pizza chef or baker

Non-profit organization Pro-Bejaru, set up to combat exclusion, has devised an original way of solving this problem: since the young people have neither the time nor the money to attend a training course, the course will come to them!

Pro-Bejaru plans to set up a mobile training center in a bus that goes to the favelas. It has chosen to focus on bread-related activities to take advantage of the city's economic boom. The young people will learn how to make bread, pizza dough and pancakes and can then apply for a job in one of the city's numerous restaurants and eateries. The organization hopes to train 200 young people in two years.

To finance acquisition of a bus and fit it out as a mobile kitchen, Pro-Bejaru launched an appeal for sponsors. If the project delivers the expected results, it could be replicated in other regions in Brazil.