100 dicas Rio de Janeiro / 100 Slow Food Tips - Slow Food Brasil

DICAS SUSTENTÁVEIS
SUSTAINABLE TIPS 123
The dream of a community vegetable garden on Morro da
Coroa was born in the 1980s, when Minas-born Áureo Efigênio
Nascimento, began planting fruit and vegetables in front of his
house. A serious landslide in 1982 killed people and destroyed
homes and Áureo's vegetable plot. That was when his fight for a
space to start a community plot began. Despite many problems
(the work on the plots was carried out under crossfire among
drug-traffickers and on two occasions people were shot), Áureo
and Dona Terezinha de Sousa never gave up on their community
vegetable garden. In 1999, the Santa Horta received permission to
plant on a piece of wasteland unsuitable for building due to the
risk of landslides. Today, after countless obstacles and changes of
address, the plot has been revived on the original hillside, where
legumes, herbs, vegetables and fruit are now grown. Children
from the community and foreign voluntary workers from Iko
Poran, an NGO, help out. Even people with no money to pay for
their shopping never go home empty-handed. Áureo's next aim
is to form a community credit bank in which organic leftovers for
compost can be exchanged for fruit and vegetables.
Associação dos Moradores do Morro da Coroa
Rua Baronesa de Guararema, 169 - Tel: (21) 2273-9099
www.santahorta.blogspot.com