1994, Brazil’s dry savanna. In the poorest region of the country seven young people meet – with no work, no school-leaving certificate and thus no life prospects – in an old, deserted mill in order to take their lives and their dreams in hand together.

Inspired by Professor Manoel Andrade, who is one of them and has yet achieved something, they develop their goals together in the shade of the juazeiro trees and under the light of the street lamps. They begin to instruct each other in what each can do best. Through cooperative learning they begin to pursue their dream of higher education.

The entrance of the first one from this group at university triggers a wave of hope in the region! Is it possible after all to break through the cycle of no prospects? Believing in a new opportunity, numerous young people join together in small cooperative learning groups.

PRECE is meanwhile a movement of thousands of young people in Sertão, based on the values of solidarity, learning in cooperative cells, developing their potential and taking their future and that of their region actively in hand. PRECE today works principally in public school systems. Based on their EEEP Alan Pinho Tabosa state model school, part of the Ashoka network of change-maker schools, PRECE is reforming public schools from the inside out through the method of cooperative and supportive learning. That this has positive effects not just for the educational system but also for society is shown by the new young generation in Sertão, who not only know what they want and what they are learning for, but have in addition learnt that it is not competition but cooperation and solidarity which moves the world forwards!

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