Country: Brazil

About: I was born in Ceara, Brazil, the poorest and driest region of the country. I grew up seeing the difficulties of my people. When I was 9 years old, I started to work on social and education projects in schools and favelas. Today, I run a social enterprise that helps the poor in Brazil to have access, data security, and digital education to use the technology in a good way to generate learning, work and new connections between different cultures and people. My work with Social Brasilis is building an inclusive world for all.

Recipe for Change: 

Here’s my recipe for building community change:

1. Build your Self Knowledge – Identify what are your dreams. What are your hobbies today? What do you feel about your city, local policy, world problems, school or university? And what can you do to contribute for change this situation?
2. Define your Life Project – After knowing yourself, you can create a life Project which is a plan about your aspirations in your life, it is your future plan and how will you perform it. Make goals and a plan for each one, control them everyday.
3. Become a Life-long Learner – The world changes every single day. You should follow this change in technology, policy, the global situation, the water, the forests, local economy and so on. So lead, study, try to understand different points of view and culture, so to find your way.
4. Create – Do something for your community/city/school/country. You can start by sharing your vision, culture and story with the world through technology. It can be a simple Project.
5. Prepare to Grow – From a community of like-minded people like you. Share your ideas, form the group for a cause, make an engagement to create a creative solution for a social problem that you have.

Recipe: Baião de dois

Baião de dois is a dish of Ceará origin, typical of the Northeast region and parts of the North region of Brazil. It consists of rice and beans, preferably green beans or new beans. Rennet cheese is often added. No dry meat is added in Ceará.

INGREDIENTS:

500 ounces of dried meat

1 cup of beans

1 cup of rice

½ chopped onion

1 cup oil

½ spoon of salt

1 bay leaf

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut the dried meat into large cubes of about 7 cm each – this size is ideal for desalting the meat without completely removing the salt and also for shredding it in a uniform size. Place in a bowl and wash under running water.
2. Cover the meat cubes with 5 cups (tea) of cold water. Cover the bowl with a plate (or film) and leave in the refrigerator for 24 hours – change the water at least once during this period.
3. Drain the water and transfer the meat to the pressure cooker. Make up to half the pot with water, cover and place over medium heat. As soon as the pan starts to beep, turn the heat down and let it cook for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and wait for all the pressure to come out before opening (you can place a fork under the valve to speed up the process, but this will shorten the pot’s life).
4. Discard the cooking water, add the french beans and repeat the previous step, but this time let it cook for only 10 minutes. Attention: the beans cannot overcook and cut. After 10 minutes of cooking, turn off the heat and, with a fork, lift the valve to release the pressure from the pan.
5. With tongs, transfer the meat cubes to a plate and shred with two forks – discard the larger pieces of fat. Over a bowl, pass the beans through a sieve and reserve the cooking water.
6. Place a medium saucepan over medium heat. When warm, drizzle with olive oil and add onion. Season with salt and sauté for about 2 minutes, until wilted. Add the rice and stir well for about 1 minute to wrap all the beans with the oil.
7. Measure 2 cups (tea) of the reserved cooking water and pour over the rice. Add the bay leaf, mix and cook over medium heat. As soon as the water starts to dry and reaches the same level as the rice, reduce the heat and partially cover the pan. Cook until the rice absorbs all the water – to check, prick the rice with a fork and remove some grains from the bottom of the pan.
8. Turn off the heat and keep the pan covered for 5 minutes so that the beans finish cooking in their own steam. Meanwhile, prepare the sauté.