Network for Agroecological Transition

Growing through urban communities

RAIN began as a thought on the banks of a dried-up stream in Minas Gerais, and took form over lunch with our bold and bearded friend Márcio.

Márcio phoned Mariana in Recife, Mariana talked to Ravi, and together with a team of students they built a geodesic agroforestry nursery at Professor Cândido Duarte Middle School. A donor in London loved the idea, and he put up the funds.

Video footage from the project was shared with the expanding RAIN network, and something remarkable emerged from the playground - a practical and cost-effective way of improving food security in urban communities facing uncertainty. Generous donors gave enough money to fund our friends in Recife to build Rede Pela Transição (Network for Transition), taking seeds, tools and techniques into the community.

Others in Rede Pela Transição took the work online during lockdown; now their educational videos are being watched in eight states across Brazil. The pandemic and the precarious social situation in Brazil have left many communities struggling to find enough to eat, so the next step is to take the project to eight more urban communities in Recife.

They need to raise around £3000, and the Brazilian Crowdfunder ends on 12th March. This sum could change the lives of thousands of people currently living in hunger. If we act now, we can take this pioneering initiative into other communities.

Follow the journey in this two-minute video: