Meet the Remaining Quilombo group “Women in Action, Sharing Knowledge”, a women group from Quilombo Bracinho de Icatu. Rosiane, one of the members, tells us about the beginning of the partnership between the group and Meli.

Author: Rosiane Pereira dos Santos

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The group of women called “Women in Action, Sharing Knowledge” was born within the Association of Remnants of Quilombos São Tomé do Bracinho de Icatu, in Baião, Pará, Brazilian Amazon. They bring topics such as human rights, environment, sustainability and women’s health, envisioning the development of activities to contribute to the empowerment and development of black quilombola women inside and outside their community.

Some time ago the group met Dorília, a partner of our ideals. She, who is also part of a quilombola community in the same municipality, got in touch with our group and shared her knowledge through workshops, such as the macrame workshop she facilitated in 2019.

After this workshop, we had the opportunity to have other dialogues and we saw the possibility to develop even more activities together. Dorília introduced us to Meli and asked about our interest in projects involving stingless bees. From then on, we started to engage in the Meli Network and participated in conversations with them. We were then awarded the approval of a project that made us very happy and with the certainty that it will be the first of many.

Why we are so happy to get to know the Meli Bees Network?

For us who are part of traditional communities, our ancestry teaches us that we must be guardians of nature and protect our precious environment. We try to fulfill this mission even though we live in a society that aims at profitability and depreciates nature for that.

But even within that society, there are many partners who share the same ideals as our group and take care of everything good that nature offers us. This was one of the reasons why we agreed to meet Meli, as we believe that we share similar ideas. Thus, we hope that our partnership will be of complicity between the parties that meet.

A hug from us to the Meli Bees Network.