In September, the Knowledge Station completed 15 years of activity in Marabá, Pará, where it has already supported more than 1,600 families with services and activities that seek to contribute, mainly, to the integral development of children and adolescents. The space is distinguished by its alignment with public policies and is maintained by the Vale Foundation, with support from Vale and other partners, including Wheaton Precious Metals, CXHI, Posco, and the Industrial Learning National Service (Senai). 

“Our work aims to create real development opportunities for families, offering tools that help them overcome their vulnerabilities and fully exercise their citizenship.”

Audileide Oliveira, director of the Marabá Knowledge Station

Currently, the Marabá Knowledge Station serves 395 children and 663 adolescents. The services offered to the community are free and include sports activities (athletics, football, footvolley, and sand volleyball), cultural activities (theater, dance, musicalization and capoeira), education, health and social assistance. 

One of them is the pre-university course “Educa EC,” whose objective is to help students from the municipality to enter higher education and, in three years of operation, has already contributed to the approval of 140 students in public and private universities. 

There are also psychosocial and health monitoring services, carried out in offices within the Station itself, which have already provided more than 1,600 medical and dental care consultations to the community.

The Knowledge Station also seeks to open doors to the labor market through professional qualification courses, within the “Estação Capacita” project. During the celebrations for the 15 years, three new learning rooms were opened, each one equipped according to a specific area of knowledge: one room will be dedicated to aesthetic courses, another for training in gastronomy and the third for industrial courses in mechanics, electrical and maintenance. 

In addition to Marabá, four other Brazilian cities have a Knowledge Station: Tucumã (PA), Serra (ES), Brumadinho (MG) and Arari (MA).