In December, representatives of the Synapse Project partners met at the BNDES headquarters in Rio de Janeiro to sign the partnership term for the development of the project. The event also served as a get-together for those involved and was attended by John Thuestad, Executive Vice President of Bauxite & Alumina at Hydro, Senior Vice President of External Relations, Anderson Baranov and Director of Sustainability and Social Impact, Eduardo Figueiredo. Also present were representatives of BNDES, Institute of Research in Technology and Innovation (IPTI, in Portuguese), Lorinvest and Movimento Bem Maior, which are the other partners of the initiative.

“It is a great satisfaction for Hydro to know that through this partnership we are supporting the arrival of a project of this relevance in the Amazon and that communities neighboring our operations in Pará will also be served. The Pará municipalities of Acará, Moju and Tomé-Açu are protagonists of this initiative. We are investing approximately BRL 1.1 million in this project and thus hope to support the qualification and training of public schools to overcome the challenges created by covid-19”, said John Thuestad.

About the Synapse Project

The Synapse network is a social technology aimed at improving the teaching and learning of Portuguese and Mathematics in the literacy cycle, aligned with the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC, in Portuguese), built to be effective in vulnerable and extremely poor regions. Currently, the methodology is applied in four states and 27 municipalities. With Hydro's partnership, this will be the beginning of the project's operations in the Amazon, which will serve communities that are close to the company's pipeline, which takes bauxite from Paragominas to Barcarena.

The project is expected to start in 2023. The partnership was officially announced by the cofinanciers during the 27th United Nations Conference on Climate Change, COP-27, in Egypt, on November 16, with the presence of Anderson Baranov and Eduardo Figueiredo, from Hydro.

Commitment to education

Focused on building a positive agenda for the sustainable development of the areas in which it operates, Hydro promotes even more strengthening actions related to education. One example is the Território do Saber program, which is directly linked to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the UN, aiming at a society where it is possible to make a positive difference by improving the quality of education. The program was structured on three interdependent pillars, and seeks to promote changes in individuals and their interrelationships for a better school climate, strengthening youth and adult education, in addition to innovations in the use of teaching and learning methodologies.

By investing in the personal and socio-emotional training of educators, the company believes that managers will be better prepared to lead the process of change and innovation in teaching and learning methodologies in the region. The program started in 2019 and more than 500 teachers participated in the program's training activities. During this period, the educational performance of municipal schools has also been worked on through actions aimed at strengthening school management and changing the culture of these establishments.