Etapa Arajara Park reunió más de 500 atletas

How the community can reinvent itself through its territory was the discussion presented by the representative of the Secretariat of Economic Development and Innovation of Juazeiro do Norte during the opening of the third day of the 1st Summer University Course promoted by Araripe Geopark and URCA at Hotel IU-Á, in Juazeiro do Norte.

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Douglas Feitosa spoke about entrepreneurship that aim not only at immediate profit but at the development of the community at all. He gave examples of how the community can reinvent itself through its territory, in particular, cited a Colombian city that uses tourism volcanoes, even if there is no natural volcano in its area. He also mentioned the experience of the Casa Grande Foundation in Nova Olinda, a social project that has moved the community and economy of the small municipality.

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In order to present the experience of the Casa Grande Foundation (FCG), Júnior Santos, Communication Director, showed the developments with Community Tourism implemented by the Foundation in Nova Olinda. These are the creation of family inns in which the families of the children participating in the project receive tourists in their houses at affordable prices and provide the immersion of these visitors in the local culture.

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Another experience presented was the Living Museums, a project carried out with Sesc, which consists of making the homes of the Masters of Popular Culture of Cariri in a network of Museums. Júnior Santos emphasized the Potengi Living Museum, showing quantitative and financial graphs on the investments and income from these projects. According to him, a little more than R$ 10,000 was invested in the creation of the Museum, which represents a low-cost activity, important for local culture and tourism, as well as valuing the bragging Masters and their works.

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Santos also spoke about other initiatives such as the creation of Café Violeta coffee shop, the Fashion Show held annually at FCG and the sales system for various local products in a physical and online way, and audiovisual resources for dissemination of the works.

The financial impact for the municipality, according to Júnior is almost half a million real. All of these initiatives have emerged, he says, from the idea of ​​making the tourist who comes to know the Casa Grande Foundation stay longer at the place.

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From the questions "to what extent is Cariri an entrepreneur? what actions really are pertinent and consistent with our reality? ", SEBRAE consultant Édio Callou instigated the audience to think about the potential of Cariri culture of Ceará. The consultant specified some real actions, such as several activities done in partnership with Araripe Geopark, such as participation in tourist events, improvement courses for artisans and publications of local handicraft catalogs.

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For Édio, there are seeds that have germinated and are already bearing fruit, such as the creation of the Brazilian Association of Bars and Restaurants (ABRASEL), which gave a new concept both in the visual and gastronomy of the region, providing several events such as the festival "From bar to bar ", gastronomic experience that moves the city of Juazeiro do Norte.