The Centro de Educação Popular e Formação Social (Center for Popular Education and Social Formation, or, CEPFS)—an organization supported by the BrazilFoundation since 2006—received the Prêmio Planeta Casa 2012 (House Planet Award) in São Paulo on October 3, 2012. An initiative of Revista Casa (House Magazine)—a publication of Editora Abril (April Publishing House)—this award is given to businesses, NGOs, architects and designers who integrate comfort, well-being and sustainability.
The CEPFS won the award in the Ação Social (Social Action) category through its project Convivência com a Realidade Semiárida (Living with the Semi-arid Reality), which brings water to more than 61 thousand people in five cities in Paraíba through the construction of cisterns and the recycling of rainwater.
In the same month, the CEPFS won second place in the Prêmio FINEP (FINEP Award) 2012 for the Social Technology competition in the Northeast region, given by the Ministério de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation), as a testament to innovation in Brazil. The award was given in recognition of CEPFS’s development, dissemination and monitoring of low-cost, innovative technology that collects, stores and generates hydric resources, which are utilized for consumption, agricultural irrigation and to raise farm animals.
