MY MEMORIES, MARKS OF A TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECT

In 2000 we won the municipal elections in Brava and took over the City Council. One of the central themes of the first meeting of our executive team was the DISTRIBUTION OF LEADERSHIPS TO THE COUNCILORS and, in the debate of ideas, it fell to me the LEADERSHIP OF EDUCATION, CULTURE, EMIGRATION and GENDER APPROACH. I was very familiar with two of the four areas of the assumed Pelouro: EDUCATION, being my professional field, and CULTURE, due to my life path as a “cultural activist” since 1975. With the remaining two, some mastery of relevant information. however, it is not my intention to come here to talk about my performance as a councilor. Such, if God allows me life and health, could become the subject of a compilation that I am working on little by little about “my journey of life”. What I really want is, in addition to all the IMPORTANT PROJECTS THAT WE CARRY OUT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSFORMATION OF BRAVA, such as the construction of sports facilities, the opening up of various communities, the electrification and water connection in homes and many others, leave some memories of THE PROJECT FOR TRANSFORMING EARLY EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN BRAVA. Some reasons:

o BECAUSE WE HAD “A CONCRETE WORKING FIELD”: At the time, the City Council of Brava had nine of the eleven kindergartens, which were part of the BRAVA KINDERGARTEN NETWORK, presenting such a scenario as “a well-dimensioned plot of land , departure, for intervention”;
o BECAUSE WE FOUND BIG CHALLENGES TO OVERCOME: a scenario of very precarious functioning of Kindergartens as spaces for pedagogical practices, a scenario proven after the diagnostic work carried out, right at the beginning of our mandate in close partnership with the Education Sector on the Island , for “perception of its real functioning state”, with results dictating profound and urgent transformation;
o BECAUSE WE MANAGED TO OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES WITH A SPIRIT OF MISSION AND BASED ON GREAT COLLECTIVE WORK – to overcome the challenges it was necessary to mobilize considerable financial resources, but also the will and efforts of many people and the best strategic partnerships;
o BECAUSE THE INTERVENTION SECTOR, THE TRANSFORMATION CARRIED OUT WAS TREATED AS A PRIORITY FOR THE ISLAND – investing in Education is and will always be a major investment. And investing in Pre-School was investing in the foundation of Education, the space that guarantees a better transition of children to basic schooling, easier socialization, and long-term reduction in the rate of school dropouts and social exclusion. , thus preventing youth from committing crimes;
o BECAUSE THE WORK WAS DESIGNED AND CARRIED OUT TO TRANSCEND GENERATIONS OF BRAVES – the Kindergartens were born as “living learning spaces” where children should reveal a very wide range of skills such as reading, writing and counting (cognitive skills) but also cooperation, making friends, being among others, self-control and self-confidence (socialization skills), skills that are decisive for their good school integration. As such, they are here to stay, and must demand from public managers, especially from the City Council as owner, from the Gardens Management Teams and from successive generations of Brave people, gestures of affection for their preservation, requalification and enhancement.

I remember, as if it were yesterday, that great job. I remember the project assembly phase, the intense work of mobilizing partners to finance the projects and the workforce to take over the execution of works, the amounts mobilized and invested, in short, a set of challenges we had which to exceed. But I remember even more the voluntary gestures and attitudes of real citizenship of many of our countrymen, whether residing in the homeland or in the diaspora. I'm talking about the Braveenses who ceded or sold land for the execution of works and the Braveenses who intermediated processes for the assignment and sale of said lands. Many people ignore or do not give due importance to this phase of the work. We built (7) seven Kindergartens and it was necessary to mobilize (7) land for its construction, as the City Council does not have any plot of land for this purpose.
I also keep the best memories of the “waiting phase for the works to be born”, that is, of living with the precarious scenario. “My soul as a teacher”, the Education Services as moderators of the educational system on the Island, Pre-School professionals, Parents/Guardians of the children, National Authorities in matters of supervision (these, charged us, at the time, Permits for the operation of the Gardens), everything and everyone exerted pressure on us so that the transformations occurred as soon as possible. However, circumstances dictated a waiting period. Works could not be born overnight. And in the meantime, I lived with rich experiences of toil and life in society. Some of those memories:

o The great collaboration given by the Delegation of the Ministry of Education and OMCV/Brava in the transfer of the first furniture (tables and chairs), to overcome the difficulties encountered in many small classrooms/activities in the Kindergartens, due to insufficiency in quantitative terms, considering the size of certain classes, or by inadequacy in terms of size, considering the age range of children enrolled in the Gardens;
o The efforts of the City Council workshop workers in adapting the furniture (cutting, recycling and painting);
o Of Education Professionals working in the various Educational Units (Managers of Educational Poles, Directors of Satellite Schools, Teachers, Managers of Canteens and Cooks at EBI, Administrative Personnel of Educational Poles) who, within a framework of partnership established between the City Council da Brava, ICASE and the MED/Brava Delegation, facilitated the administration of hot meals in all kindergartens. Only with such collaboration and partnership was it possible to effectively introduce hot meals in the Children's Gardens, as we were not in a position, especially in logistical terms, to take on the project;
o The dedication and professionalism of the Pre-School Pedagogical Coordination Team in the search for the best solutions to overcome the pedagogical difficulties, at the time, many and worrying. The challenges were great and so was his courage in overcoming them;
o Of the Monitors and Cooks of the Kindergartens then!...I will never forget your dedication, professional pride and, above all, kindness. They make the Kindergartens their home and corner of life and their professional work, the marking of the first steps in the journey of all of us. They were true warriors. They were, at all times and under all circumstances, in the aforementioned time frame, my main strength.

The whole work involved so many people, so many hands, so many ideas and contributions to the point of making it difficult to balance the effective performance of our City Hall Team in this TRANSFORMATION PROJECT. Will it interest such? I don't think so. The Project was executed and successfully. It was a CONQUEST OF THE BRAVA AND ALL THE BRAVENSES.
I have been following, in this context of the Electoral Campaign for the Municipal Elections, next Sunday, several promises made by Political Parties competing for the Bravenses electorate, within the scope of their Electoral Platforms and, among them all, I have been putting more focus and attention on those that deal with the pulse of the Education Sector on the Island. Maybe for better mastering my professional area and the theme in approach. I agreed with the Strategic Intervention Line of the PAICV Team in the Sector. Some will say that I make such a consideration because I am a PAICV militant, for the love of the shirt, a fanatic for parties. But not. I do it knowingly. I was at Brava, two years ago, and from the conversations I had with several colleagues from so many struggles on the subject, from the observation of the state of degradation of a large part of the physical heritage built with a lot of sacrifice over the years, including the Gardens Childish, and it was enough to feel everything. And my agreement is justified by the fact that the PAICV Team's proposal focuses on the trilogy REQUALIFICATION, ENHANCEMENT OF THE ENTIRE EDUCATIONAL HERITAGE BUILT/ TRAINING EDUCATORS ESPECIALLY AT THE EARLY CHILDHOOD LEVEL/ TRAINING FOR EMPLOYMENT, steps that follow the line of overcoming a set of constraints that are holding back the progress of other times in the Sector and where the City Council has a great deal of intervention. An excellent proposal. Those who value THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EDUCATION SECTOR SHOULD VOTE FOR IT. TRANSFORMING IS NECESSARY BECAUSE GOING FORWARD WITH THE SAME ERRORS AND SLIPS AND WALKING INTO THE Abyss. And the Team Proposed by PAICV is tailored for the mission of transformation.

Then a SET OF IMAGES PORTRAITTING THE MAIN BRANDS OF THE TRANSFORMATION PROJECT