Bahá’í World/Volume 24/Association for the Coherent Development of the Amazon
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PROFILE:
ASSOCIATION £01- ie COHERENT DEVELOPMENT 0mm AMAZQN
I n 1994, eight young people from different rural communities in the Amazon concluded their high school studies at the Dj alal Eghrari Polytechnical Institute in Iranduba, Brazil. During the ceremony, many of the parents were seen crying as they watched their children graduateman unbelievable dream in the Amazon where these youth were the only ones in their communities to have finished their secondary studies.
The Djalal Eghrari Polytechnical Institute is one of the components of the Association for the Coherent Development of the Amazon (ADCAM). ADCAM, a non-profit organization based on Bahá’í principles and dedicated to the education and development of the population of the rural regions of the Amazonas state, was initiated following the call of the Universal House of Justice in 1983 for greater involvement of Bahá’í communities in social and economic development. In J anuary 1984, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Brazil sent a research team, whose members had a collective experience of more than 30 years in the region and who were professionals in the fields of
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T he Djalal Eghrari Polytechnical Institute in Iranduba, Brazil, places emphasis on agriculture and rural development.
health, education, agriculture, and rural development, to survey the possibilities of greater participation in the socioeconomic development of the Amazon. Three distinct aspects identified by this team as crucial to the progress of the region—«education, health care, and the development of the rural economy——therefore became the focus of this organization.
Specifically, ADCAM seeks to furnish the means by Which rural populations may gain competence in the fields of education, health, and rural production; to research jointly with local populations options for self—sustained development; to offer educational and social services to the community; to build capacities for the formation and administration of grassroots organizations; to use consultation as a method of group decision making for the solution of social and economic problems; to promote consciousness of the interdependence of all the members of society, and of people and nature; and to establish a dynamic coherence between the spiritual and material aspects of life.
The first major initiative of ADCAM was the establishment of the Eghrari Institute in 1984 to fulfill two distinct purposes: to assist With Bahá’í activities and to provide practical and academic education for the local youth. The institute began its operations in 1988 with a 19—day rotational cycle: for 19 days about 20 male and 20 female students study in Iranduba and then return to their Villages for the same period of time to apply the principles they have learned. The practical work performed by the students
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during the 19-day period in their communities involves simp1e individual or group projects in which students carry out assignents, often consisting of an elementary survey of their own communities under the categories of agriculture, health, water, and social conditions.
In order to expand its capacity to serve the needs of the region, the school is presently shifting from a four—year state—sponsored curriculum to address the following five lines of action: (1) formal education, through modifying the existing school to follow the System of Tutorial Apprenticeship (SAT), an integrated rural education program pioneered by FUNDAEC in Colombialg (2) community development, focusing on the creation of community structures based on the Bahá’í teachings to maintain basic health, education, production and organization; (3) preparation of sufficient educational materials for the execution of short training courses and for the application of SAT; (4) training of human resources, Which includes creating opportunities for the staff of the institute, as members of a nongovernmental organization, to deve1op their administrative abilities in rural education and development and in the SAT program; and (5) the establishment of an efficient administrative model for the institute, enabling it to execute its diverse programs.
On 3 January 1995, the Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Environment Visited the Djalal Eghrari Institute, Which is partly funded by the Canadian embassy. Her scheduled 30-minute inspection of the proj ect expanded to about two hours because of her enthusiasm and interest. She later stated that this was the best part of her tour of the Amazon.
1. FUNDAEC (Fundacién para la Aplicacio’n y Ensefianza de Zas Ciencias) is a non-profit organization seeking to counter the effects of industrialization in rural Colombia. Founded in 1974 and based in Cali, FUNDAEC uses Bahá’í principles in its approach to development and sponsors a number of rural deve1opment programs, including a microenteiprise proj ect, an agro-industrial training center, and the SAT program for rural education. For further information on FUNDAEC and its projects, see One Country, the quarterly newsletter of the Bahá’í Internationa1 Community, V01. 7, n0. 4 (J anuary—March 1996) and V01. 8, no. 1 (April—June 1996).
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The second maj or program of ADCAM, the Nucleus or Center for Social Welfare, located in Manaus, Amazonas, emerged from the Lar Linda Tanure orphanage. In 1985, the Bahá’ís were asked by a group of businessmen and the government to establish and administer a home for abandoned children. Its approach clearly reflects the Bahá’í View of human nature. In the words of Ferial Farzin, the center’s director, “we search for the jewel that we believe exists inside each person.”
By 1991, Lar Linda had expanded its sphere of operations to include educational programs for children and pre-adoleseents, including moral education in addition to regular academic subj eets. Courses for women from the surrounding low—ineome neighborhood included health, hygiene, nutrition and disease prevention.
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a component of the Association 5‘ for the Coherent Development of the Amazon (ADCAZVI). One outreach initiative saw the organization of a mothers’ group in the neighborhood immediately adjacent to the schoolan example of how the students’ parents can become a force for social change and action. Members of the group walk around together in the evenings, Visiting families with problems and providing mutual support. As one member of the group said, “The Bahá’í community gives us a new Vision. Many, many people promise us things. But they do little accomplishment. But the Bahá’ís are always willing to serve, and they show us that example.”
The Center’s success is reflected in the fact that by 1992 more
than 250 abandoned children had been served by the orphanage;
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of this number approximately 60 percent had been adopted, While another 40 percent had returned to their parents. A total of more than 140 students had taken part in an outreach program.
By 1993, Lar Linda had fully evolved from an orphanage into a school, and it signed an agreement with the Bahá’í-owned Masrour Association to establish the Masrour Vocational School on the property. The main purpose of the vocational school is to provide the students With some skills While making them eonscious of their social responsibilities. Students can take courses in hairdressing, child and adolescent psychology, human relations, moral education, and first aid.
Christina Ihhamus de Paula, a teacher at Masrour, said that if the school had not been established to serve children in the area, “most of them would be abandoned and like many other children they would live in the streets.” She continued, “many of the students are from the poorest class of society and they lack care and tenderness. I feel myself that they need my love, because they often don’t have it at home. Not all of them get enough to eat, so the need for the school is very important.”
Presently, there are more than 350 children and youth attending the Lar Linda School, and about 200 people participating in the Masrour Vocational Program.
Having sustained and expanded its initiatives for more than a decade, ADCAM is achieving its goal to provide a regional system whereby the spiritual needs of the long—suffering rural population of the region can be met in conjunction With their material progress. The Association is motivating the rural population to seek alternative solutions to their present problems rather than thinking they have left them behind by seeking the overly crowded urban centers.
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