2023-06-05 20:58:46
On May 26th, representatives of the Restinga neighborhood, located on the outskirts of Porto Alegre/RS, together with federal deputy Daiana Santos (PCdoB/RS), met with the rector of the University of International Integration of Afro-Brazilian Lusofonia (Unilab), Roque Albuquerque, and professors from the institution. The agenda was the installation of a Unilab campus in the Restinga community, recognized as a place of black and peripheral resistance.
According to the proposal, which came from residents of Restinga, the new campus would offer courses in the area of Health, a gap in the region: Nursing, Pharmacy, Medicine, Dentistry and Psychology, and there is already an indication of a suitable land for its installation .
Professors and researchers from various institutions participate in the Organizing Committee, such as the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp), Catholic University of Pelotas (UCPel), Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), in addition to Unilab.
The new campus would bring “the promotion of knowledge and training of Public Health professionals with a focus on the needs that directly affect the peripheral population and other sectors treated until now as ‘minorities’, with the expansion of the offer of services aimed at these sectors and the development of knowledge aligned with the epistemological perspectives of the African humanities that distinguishes Unilab’s pedagogical project”, highlights the project.
Health of minority populations
The project focuses on the specific health needs of populations that are the numerical majority, but do not receive due attention, currently being referred to as minorized or minimized. They would be, within the scope of the project, the black, indigenous and LGBTQIAP+ populations.
Even with the improvement of health access initiatives after the 1988 Constitution, the principle of universality ends up disregarding the specificities of the black population, for example, who suffer from racial discrimination.
“In 2008, this segment of the population had a higher percentage of non-attendance at the health service and a lower rate of coverage by the health system (73.1% for men and 76.3% for women, while between men and white women, this percentage was 85.1% and 86.7%, respectively), which indicates the existing difficulty for the full and effective universalization of care services when taking into account the racial profile”, argue the authors of the project .
elite training
In addition to these difficulties, training in Health courses offered in Brazil is quite elitist, often aimed at young people who are already socially privileged. “(…) When one observes the courses called
‘elite’ (and here it is worth mentioning that many are from the Health area), little is observed of the presence of young people from this part of the population”, highlights the new campus project, reinforcing the need for training aimed at minority populations, that could be provided by an institution like Unilab.
restinga
Marked by the black presence since its foundation in 1772, Porto Alegre at the beginning of the 20th century concentrated a large part of this population in its center and surroundings. From a long process of gentrification in the central area of the city, throughout the second half of the 1960s, residents of this region began to be forcibly removed to the extreme south of the city, 26 km away: the Restinga, which, at the time, , without any infrastructure, did not even have adequate public transport or electricity and sanitation.
Throughout its almost 55 years of existence, however, Restinga has developed exponentially from the strength and mobilization
of the community itself. The neighborhood has 38.56 km², which is equivalent to 8.10% of the total area of the city of Porto Alegre, and is inhabited by about 60 thousand people. In terms of race/color, 30.5% declared themselves to be black, above the average for Porto Alegre (20.2%).
broad support
The rector of Unilab, Roque Albuquerque, was approached by deputy Daiana dos Santos and received a letter of intent and the project that requests the opening of dialogue about Unilab-Sul. “This is a big challenge. Like everything that involves minimized people, there will be no lack of opposing voices and excuses like ‘It is necessary to consolidate A for B to start’, but this is not how we win battles, this will not be an intimidating factor for us to make this dream come true. Restinga is marked by culture, by people who really want to see the transformation of reality and I do not believe that another university would have in its DNA the qualifications that Unilab has, with all due respect to the others”, he emphasized.
Sérgio Edgar Campos de Matos, professor at the Public Network of RS and doctoral student in Physiology/UFRS, was one of the project’s articulators. “Several teachers asked me what I was going to do for mine, so I saw that there is a great need for doctors and nurses. It is a project of great value to create professionals in the area of Health who can act mainly by serving their own, so that we are not dependent on certain doctors, spending 3 to 5 hours waiting at a health center ”, he says.
Deputy Daiana Santos also highlights the identification with the project from its peripheral origin. “I received this call because I strongly believe – this is what moves me politically – in the development of these peripheries, since I come from this place. Looking at this place is not a relationship of exchange or political bargaining, it is an investment relationship thinking about human development, ”she said.
Professors Pedro Aleyva and Bas’Ilele Malomalo, from Unilab, have participated in the articulation. “From the beginning there was a very fruitful dialogue between community leaders, teachers, politicians and the Rectory. Restinga deserves a Unilab campus to break the distance between Africa and the black population and to scientifically train the youth so that they can enter the world of work in a qualified way”, highlighted Pedro Leyva.
Bas’Ilele Malomalo draws attention to the hope invested in the project. “I remember from the first meetings and until that moment of construction of this noble project, the sparkles in the eyes, the powerful voices full of hope to see, in that black territory, the new campus of an international and public university being born. Unilab-Sul offers the possibility of receiving not only young Africans from the Palop, but also those who migrated to the southern regions in search of work”, he said.
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