Reports
Gutberlet, J. (2007). Victoria: CBRL.
An unknown number of Victoria’s street community members engage in “binning”, or the collection of recyclables from industrial and city garbage bins for income generation purposes. The Pilot Phase of the MOTHERS project aimed to re-empower street-affected “binners” and contribute to their overall quality of life by providing four safety-oriented specially-designed bicycles and tent-trailers. Through participatory video workshops, the project participants were trained in video technology and postproduction media. This training served as a strategy to improve community networking opportunities and stimulate awareness and education of recycling programs, while contributing to their personal empowerment and growth in the process. This video component to the project allowed for participants to reflect on binning and discussed the impacts of the project on their quality of life. The completed video will be used for community outreach and education regarding the challenges of poverty and homelessness in our region.
The video component of the project is part of a larger initiative to expand participatory development and capacity-building of recyclers in Canada and Brazil, funded by the International Development Research Council (IDRC). It builds on the efforts of the ‘Participatory Sustainable Waste Management project (PSWM),’ funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and headed by Dr. Jutta Gutberlet. The PSWM project, initiated in 2005, has introduced participatory processes and has improved the organization of recyclers in the Metropolitan region of São Paulo, where recycling cooperatives and the municipal government are now embedded in networking activities.
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