Americas

Automaker FCA meets with Success in Humanta-rian Prjoect in Pernambuco, Brazil

The FCA has proven commitment to respecting local communities and supporting their development in Brazil

June 27th, 2016
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Since opening its first Brazilian plant in Betim in 1976, FCA has worked alongside local authorities and non-governmental organizations on a range of initiatives to benefit local communities. In 2012, those activities were expanded to communities in the State of Pernambuco, where FCA has just completed construction of its largest, most advanced and sustainable plant.

“The plant in Pernambuco represents a very important step for the Group in strengthening its international activities. Brazil, where we expect to sell more than 1.3 million cars by 2018, is strategic to our expansion in Latin America. It is also the Group’s objective to contribute further to the economic, technological and industrial development of Brazil, where we have been present for almost 40 years.”

Over the past three years, FCA has invested more than €1 million to support initiatives that benefit communities around the Pernambuco plant. One of these is an educational initiative of the Istituto de Co-responsabilidade pela Educação (Institute for Co-responsibility in Education or ICE) and the Istituto Qualidade no Ensino (Institute for Quality in Teaching or IQE).

Over the years, these two NGOs have worked closely with each other on a variety of programs to improve education in public schools in partnership with businesses and local and state authorities.
The project consists in expanding the curriculum at elementary schools (students age 8-14), increasing the number of hours students are in the classroom to full-time, and supporting schools in providing additional training to teachers.

In the municipality of Igarassu (Pernambuco), the ICE and IQE, together with the Department of Education for Igarassu, have set out a 3-year action plan that includes direct training and support for teachers and the achievement of specific performance targets. Evaluations are conducted on a regular basis to compare the results of students at schools applying the new full-time model versus students from schools still following the traditional curriculum.

The first phase of the program was launched in Igarassu in mid-2014 and approximately 700 teachers will go through the 3-year training program. It is expected that the new model will be fully operational in 44 schools in the area, involving a total of around 7,000 students from 3rd to 9th grade.

References

Cultural Diplomacy News
Stella Conumello, CD News