![]()
Saturday, May 31st. The movement of the cars and the people at the Jandiá Canal port is intense, as always. People selling, people buying. It isn’t even nine A.M. yet and the thermometers are already at 30°C, and the rain hovers over us. On board of the Pacu Nunes are the seventeen people who are part of Navegar Amazônia’s new expedition. Ten Canadians and six Brazilians anxiously await for the crew to finalize the details for the nineteen-day journey through the states of Amapá e Pará’s rivers. The itinerary includes the Bailique archipelago, the Parazinho Biological Reserve and the cities Curuçá, Barcarena and Belém
The newness and audacity of Navegar’s project (to bring culture and digital inclusion to Amapá’s riverside communities), have gain strength and national recognition to the point of, still in it’s first year, being selected to represent the Brazilian public informatics at the 2001 Government Technology Week in Ottawa, Canada and at the 2002 Latin American and Caribbean Symposium for Education, Science and Culture in Information Society, at Havana Cuba.
Still in 2002, Navegar became Navegar Amazônia, a global articulated OSCIP (Organização da Sociedade Civil de Interesse Público – Civil Society Public Interest Organization), with the mission of bringing art and digital inclusion not only to Amapá’s riverside communities, but also to all Amazon riverside communities, a much greater challenge for creative Beto Lacerda (computer programmer) and Jorge Bodansky (cinematographer), the project’s creators.
A few minutes before our departure, a weak rain lowered the temperature, which by eleven A.M, was over 30°C. The rain come to wishes good luck and to baptize the high school Montreal students, first time Amazon sailors, brought by Ecomaris to interact with young Amazonians and to take from this experience the lessons for their future professions. Along the Canadians, came three students from the city of Belém, who are graduating on Forest Engineering at the Escola Técnica de Trabalho e Produção do Pará (Pará’s Technical School of Work and Production). These youngsters have developed an agro-extractive project at Cupuaçu community at the city of Barcarena.
![]()
Under the rain’s symphony, ambientalist Otizete Alencar, the project’s technical assessor, gave a speech to the students, presenting the social-environmental scene on the Jandiá Canal and the Amazon ecosystems importance in the lives of the riverside communities where Navegar Amazônia acts. João Capiberibe, the former governor, had already presented the Programa de Desenvolvimento Sustentável do Amapá (Amapá’s Sustainable Development Program), which he established in 1998 during his government, as government policy.
At eleven thirty A.M, Navegar Amazônia leaves for its nineth expedition, its first international , alongside with Canadian NGO EcoMaris. EcoMaris is focused on educating young people towards the planet’s social and environmental issues, with the goal of creating a generation of more councious consumers, regarding the planet’s resource limitations, and also regarding the need for a major integration between different people, aiming a more human world.
The rain brought us luck, for the first part of the journey, which is normally made in about twelve hours, was completed in ten hours. The Navegar Amazônia boat only faced rougher waters at the Pau Cavado passage, entering Vila Progresso, at Bailique. There, Canadians and Brazilians watched, together, a soccer match between Canada and Brazil. Brazil won, three to none.
Who is on board
The Navegar Amazônia expedition is consists of twenty people:
Four crew members – the commander, the cook and two helpers;
The project’s coordinator, Beto Lacerda, the filmmaker Gavin Andrews, the direction assistant and expedition reporter Manoel do Vale;
The EcoMaris coordinators Anne, Genevieve e Simon;
The seven Canadian students: Elodie Langlois, 20 years old, who intends to graduate in Social Sciences; Marie-Éve Babieau, 18 years old, Drama; Gabriela Warrions Renaud, 18 years old, Social Sciences; Wassin Abau-Tanos, 18 years old, Social Sciences; Pascaline Lefebvre, 19 years old, Social Sciences; Nhedi Nhebe, years old, Natural Sciences e Adrian Large, 18 years old, Social Sciences;
The three Brazilian Forest Engineering students: Adriano Silva, Alexandre Fernandez e Luís Felipe, all 22 year olds.




