Climate Justice in the Periphery: In São Gonçalo, schools teach how to name environmental racism.

The outskirts of Rio de Janeiro feel the effects of the climate emergency more intensely, and in São Gonçalo the situation is even more serious. Data from Casa Fluminense reveals that Black women represent more than 63% of women living in makeshift homes in the municipality. In addition, the city has one of the worst qualities of rivers and lagoons in the Metropolitan Region, and one of the smallest green areas per inhabitant. It is in this context of inequality that the Gênesis Environmental Education Center works to combat environmental racism at its root.

Led by Lourdes Brazil, the Xô Racismo Ambiental (Get Rid of Environmental Racism) project promotes playful and educational workshops for elementary and high school students from public schools. The first stage seeks to name the difficulties of daily life, such as the lack of sanitation, tree planting, or adequate infrastructure. “At the beginning of the activity, many children say, ‘Wow, but I love the place where I live, my classmates, my neighbors.’ But when they start listing the difficulties they face every day, they understand that there is a problem, and that this problem has a name,” says Lourdes.

“Estamos numa região com muitos contrastes, porque temos os problemas sociais evidentes, mas é um bairro importante e em crescimento, rodeado por municípios como Niterói e Itaboraí”.

In a second phase, the classes embark on an immersion in the neighborhood, interviewing older residents to recover the history and transformations of the territory. The Genesis Center itself, located in the Água Mineral neighborhood, is part of the process. Situated in a fragment of the Atlantic Forest of more than 60,000 m², the space becomes a living example of the importance of protecting nature. Thaís Araújo, a teacher in the state school system, highlights the contrast:

The final stage of the project encourages creativity. Students are encouraged to propose solutions to the identified problems, using the language of drawings, music, posters, or essays. The goal is for the discussion to leave the classroom and reach homes. The effectiveness of the initiative is already visible. “The other day I met an employee from one of the schools and he said: “The workshop worked, everything that goes wrong there, the children say, ‘look at that environmental racism!’”.