Passos d'Água Sesc English

Have you ever thought about how you could respond to the climate crisis and water insecurity that Brazil and the world are facing? Have you ever thought that it could be done collaboratively, with lots of fun, conversations, exchanges, laughter, creativity, and many new ideas sparking your imagination?

That's how it was throughout 2025 for the more than 120 participants of the Passos d’Água course, who belong to territories along the essential and magnificent Tietê River!

Passos d’Água is a course in education, training, and collaborative innovation, engaging young multipliers to identify and co-create solutions for the WASH* (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) and climate challenges of their territories.

This edition of the course was developed by Waterlution and Sesc SP in two phases. In this film, you can follow the three locations that follow the course of the Upper and Middle Tietê river: Sesc Guarulhos, Sesc Santana, and Sesc Jundiaí, along with three local partners from the territories: the Pimentas Community Preparatory Course, the Buenos Aires State School, and the Bom Pastor Association. In three groups, young people aged 9 to 26, with 70% of them between 15 and 18 years old, followed a collaborative innovation path composed of 11 meetings: a launch, 6 training workshops, a field visit, mentoring, and a celebration meeting. 13 projects were created by the participants, addressing urgent issues such as floods, river pollution, access to basic sanitation, among others.

The second phase followed the course of the Lower Tietê region, with Sesc Birigui, and local partners in the municipalities of Birigui and Araçatuba: ETEC Birigui and SENAC Araçatuba. In these groups, people aged 15 to 54, with 73% of them between 15 and 19 years old, followed the same journey of encounters, field visits, workshops, model making, presentations, and celebrations. Eight projects emerged from the participants, with systemic perspectives, interconnecting solutions that consider planting native tree species along with the care of springs, expanding access to river water in cities, and advocacy processes for new WASH and Climate public policies focused on the visited territories.

It is an honor to work with so many inspiring people who actively seek to make changes in their communities.