Quilombolas of Pará learn new tools for improving their lives

For two days in June, 34 young quilombolas from 29 communities got together to learn how technology can help them identify needs and influence public policy. They participated in a training held by Equipe de Conservação da Amazônia (ECAM), National Coordination of the Black Quilombola Rural Communities (CONAQ), Google Earth Outreach, and Google Brazil.

The course involved the use of Google Earth and the ODK digital tool, used to collect socio-economic data of the Quilombolas’ communities.

Ana Léa, a quilombola from the community of Africa and Laranjituba, a medical student from the Federal University of Pará, explained how technology can help their communities: "Through mapping, we can have real data about our people’s needs. With these data, we can change public policies and implement concrete actions supported by concrete data of the realities of our communities.”

In addition to the young people, representatives of CONAQ and of the Coordination of the Associations of the Remnant Communities of Quilombos do Pará (Malungu) participated in the workshop.