Crops and communities are flourishing in Brazil thanks to your donations, helping farmers like Luciana & Jácia with new agricultural equipment and developing their farming skills. Above: Jácia showing some of our local partners around her new greenhouse.
Community Empowerment in Brazil
Thank you so much for your dedicated support. This page will regularly be updated with inspiring stories showing the impact of your generous donations, empowering change, and transforming lives.
CAFOD's local partners, the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) of João Pessoa, are helping rural communities to tackle climate change. They're using sustainable farming and community support to make a real impact against the challenges of a changing climate.
With your support, people like Luciana and Jácia are using new organic farming methods to transform their communities growing more food sustainably.
Luciana's Sustainable Revolution
Above: Luciana in her new greenhouse, Brazil
"I am Luciana. I have two daughters and I am an environmentally friendly farmer growing carrots, beets, and cauliflower. We are inside the greenhouse, and I am growing organic produce. I am growing beets and chives.”
Our local partners have helped Luciana, along with several other rural farmers, to install new solar-powered greenhouses and learn how to grow food whilst taking care of the environment. These greenhouses use sustainable energy to efficiently pump water to irrigate their crops, helping to conserve this scarce resource.
Luciana has actively used her new solar-powered greenhouse to combat the challenges of the usually very dry area that she lives in. Luciana has been producing greens, root vegetables, and plant seedlings.
This innovative system is making a considerable difference for her and other local farmers. Some farmers are producing seedlings of green vegetables to sell to other farmers who otherwise would have to source them from outside their own state, sometimes travelling up to 200km to do so.
The support from CPT João Pessoa has also helped to boost the local economy by providing local consumers with a greater range and quantity of fresh healthy produce. With their crops, Luciana and her neighbours are helping boost nutrition and incomes locally, reducing costs for other local farmers and helping them to stay in business.
Farming in Paradise with Jácia
In the heart of a small land reform settlement in Northeast Brazil, lives Jácia, another farmer who is using organic farming methods.
When Jácia was a child, and her settlement was just a temporary camp there wasn't always enough food. Although her family were hard workers, farming was much more difficult and expensive.
Now, things are different for Jácia, she has a lot more than before. She feels rich because she has her own piece of land, is a leader in a sustainable market group, and has her own new solar-powered greenhouse.
This greenhouse has changed the way she farms, letting her grow a range of fruit and vegetables all year long, but particularly because she can now easily sow her own seedlings in the new irrigated beds. Before, she would have to travel to buy seedlings grown elsewhere. This has lowered her costs and allows her to have control over the organic status of her crops.
It’s because of this greenhouse that she has more food to feed her family and is able to sell her other crops at local markets.
Jácia's life is all about growth and abundance now. She's not just growing food; she's growing a better life for herself and her community. Above: Jácia standing with her greenhouse's new solar-powered irrigation system.
"As we cultivate our land, we cultivate our community," Jácia reflects. Jácia lives out this belief within her role as President of the ECOVARZEA association, which organises the markets she sells her own produce at.
With our partners support, Jácia has also grown in her confidence and leadership skills. She is well-respected by everyone, including the men in the group. She now encourages more women to get involved in the group’s meetings: she says the women farmers produce and sell a lot, but often feel out of their comfort zone in meetings. She encourages them to work together and tells them that this way they will learn more and be stronger.
Jácia says: “Today we are thankful. Of course, there are people in difficulties, [...] but today we are very rich because we have this smallholding. We have somewhere we can sell our produce, which is ECOVARZEA. When we are able to grow our own food, we don’t need to earn a lot of money as well. It’s much better than growing food to sell to a middleman who sells it on elsewhere. So today we are in paradise, it’s marvellous.”
Thank You for Your Support
Working together women like Luciana and Jácia are using organic farming methods and taking care of the land. By embracing these new farming practices and moving beyond old expectations, these rural communities in Brazil are sowing the seeds of hope and cultivating a brighter future for generations to come.
Stand in solidarity with small-scale farmers
Our Fix the Food System campaign is urging the UK government to protect the right of farmers around the world to use their seeds.
Pray with us
By giving regularly you are reaching out with love to the most vulnerable communities around the world. Thank-you. Please also join us in prayer for a world of justice and peace.
Generous God,
giver of every good gift,
you are near to all who call upon you
and your love is without end.
Guide us in the ways of peace and justice,
so that all people and all creation may flourish.
Amen.