Empreendedorismo social: Sidnei Pereira da Rosa at TEDxSaoJosedosCampos
Sidnei Pereira da Rosa, a librarian, founded a community solidarity library in São Francisco Xavier, Brazil, starting from his parents' garage in 2002 after local government lacked resources. The library has grown into a reference institution serving 6,000 people in a town of 3,500 inhabitants, offering diverse programs including literacy, environmental education, digital inclusion, and community workshops.
Summary
Sidnei Pereira da Rosa, a librarian graduated from the State University of Londrina, initially worked setting up multiple libraries in Mato Grosso before returning to his small hometown of São Francisco Xavier in the Serra da Mantiqueira region. Upon his return, he discovered that the local district library was stored in an abandoned prison cell with no proper conditions, and children seeking books were caught in bureaucratic ping-pong between city hall and schools. Frustrated by the municipal library coordinator's lack of resources to establish a public library, Pereira took action. With his father's offer of the family garage, he began creating a library from scratch without initial funding, relying on book donations from the community and local tourists. He formalized the effort through the "Friends of the Library" association, registered as an NGO in June 2004, which serves as the legal entity. By February 2004, he had inaugurated the library in the garage by replacing the door with a glass window, which prompted residents to request access. The library has evolved significantly, now serving approximately 6,000 people of all ages and maintaining 15,000+ titles. Beyond lending books, the library operates multiple programs aligned with Millennium Development Goals including environmental education, recycled paper workshops, teenage pregnancy awareness and prevention (distributing condoms discreetly), digital inclusion courses, creative writing workshops, storytelling sessions, and community events. The library has become a recognized institution in Brazil, featured in the National Reading Plan and visited by prominent figures in the literary community. It operates through partnerships with governmental institutions, private companies (Petrobras, General Motors, FAB, Infraero, Terra Eletrônica), and a network of volunteers. Pereira emphasizes that the project's success came not from money but from knowledge, community involvement, proper documentation, and persistence in pursuing calls for proposals and building partnerships.
Key Insights
- Pereira discovered the municipal library was stored in an abandoned prison cell with no ventilation, humidity control, or windows, making the collection inaccessible to children and risking its deterioration.
- When told by the municipal library coordinator that she lacked people and resources to establish a library despite working in a wealthy city like São José dos Campos, Pereira decided to start the library independently in his family's garage.
- Pereira emphasizes that despite lacking money, he had knowledge, and by visualizing the specific books and resources he needed for the library, donations arrived in a seemingly miraculous pattern matching his earlier mental list.
- The library created a discrete condom distribution program at the library to address teenage pregnancy prevention, since community members were ashamed to visit health centers, and librarians decorated the condoms with flowers to make them less visibly aggressive to children.
- The solidarity library now serves 6,000 people in a town of only 3,500 inhabitants through multiple programs, and has become a reference point for reading and libraries nationally, featured in the federal government's National Reading Plan.
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] [Music] [Applause] My name is Sir Pereira, I'm a librarian, graduated from the State University of Londrina. When I graduated, I went to Mato Grosso, set up one public library, two university libraries, and one school library, and decided to return home. There, I worked a lot, and I realized it was [0:33] unnecessary to work so hard. I didn't want to get that rich, and I wasn't going to be in need. I wanted to go back home. I thought about my parents and returned. When I arrived home, in this small town nestled in the Serra da Mantiqueira, São Francisco Xavier, where I was born, one day I was at home and some children knocked on my…
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