Urban farmers end cycle of Marias School with graduation in Recife

By Rosa Sampaio
Sabiá Center journalist

Today (17), starting at 2 p.m., in the Great Hall of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), 100 peripheral women from the Metropolitan Region of Recife will celebrate their graduation from the Marias School course – Women and Urban Farming, ending the training cycle of the project carried out by the Sabiá Center.

The ceremony will be attended by authorities, project partners, the Sabiá Center team, as well as family members and guests of the students. During the event, a video will be released which portrays the process of conceiving and implementing the School from the perspective of the women farmers.

Over two years, four classes were formed. The course was divided into two modules and complemented by cross-cutting themes, lectures on guaranteeing rights and promoting social justice from the perspective of Agroecological Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture, as well as exchanges with other urban agricultural experiences.

The students of the Marias School are part of the five gardens monitored by the Sabiá Center in the communities of the women farmers. They are: the garden of the Onze Negras Quilombola Community, in Cabo de Santo Agostinho; and, in Recife, the Dandara Popular Agroecological Garden, in Peixinhos; the Cozinha Solidária Garden, in Vila Santa Luzia, in the Torre neighborhood; the Sonho de Viver Popular Agroecological Garden, in Boa Viagem; and the Margaridas Garden, in Jiquiá.

The Sabiá Center’s initiative has a partnership with the Agroecology and Peasantry Center of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE) and the Movement of Homeless Workers (MTST), as well as the support of the National Urban Agriculture Program of the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger (MDS/Federal Government). The action is the result of a parliamentary amendment by federal deputy Túlio Gadelha.