Ceremonies for the Center for Testing and Counseling (CTA) and the Center for Professional Education (CEP) attracted local authorities and others who were pleased by the improvements the centers would bring to the surrounding communities.

“To have a health system with good structure is very important, mainly in the countryside of the state of Para, where we have few resources, and the logistics to move somebody sick are very challenging,” Monielly Fidalgo, president of the Paragominas’ Residents Association Municipal Union, said during the opening of the Center for Testing and Counseling.

The facility will offer treatment and counseling for those with sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS and viral hepatitis. The center is the first of its kind in the northeastern part of Para and will serve patients from five other cities close to Paragominas: Dom Eliseu, Ipixuna do Pará, Mãe do Rio, São Miguel e Ulianópolis.

Among the services offered by the center are patient follow-up, quick HIV tests, lab tests, group therapy and psychosocial treatment. There will be 15 professionals working daily in the facility, including health technicians, nurses, medical and psychological doctors. The CTA has capacity to take care of 30 patients per day and by August the center will be offering medicine for them.

During the inauguration ceremony, the mayor of Paragominas, Adnan Demachki, emphasized that the partnership with Hydro in Paragominas was central to the establishment of the center: “It demonstrates that we are in tune with the interests and needs of the local population, as health represents the second-largest budget of the municipality.”

Says Hydro’s Paragominas institutional relations assistance, Themis Solange: “The population’s quality of life will improve and we’ll have more precise figures of the amount of people infected by AIDS, allowing for a better understanding of such a reality in this region.”

Professional Education

The Center for Professional Education (CEP) has an initial capacity of up to 600 students per month, who will be trained by Senai (National Service for Industrial Learning) in subjects such as industrial mechanics, electric, safety, civil construction, automation and IT.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Fernando Simões Henriques, head of Operations in Hydro’s Bauxite & Alumina business area; Geraldo Brittes, Paragominas plant manager; the representative of the Para State Governor, Sidney Rosa; the mayor of Paragominas, Adnan Demachki; the president of the Federation of the Industries of Pará, José Conrado; and the Regional Director of Senai, Gerson Peres.

The CEP will give the local population access to top-level courses and achieve better professional qualifications to work not only in Hydro’s organization in Paragominas, but also in the other companies located in the region.

The mayor of Paragominas says such an initiative “prepares our workers, our youngsters, for the work market.”

The center was an initiative from the bauxite operation years ago and became a reality due to the partnership with the city of Paragominas and Senai.

“We had this dream in 2007, but some issues postponed our desire. Nevertheless, the company didn’t give up, the dream became true and CEP has the same standard of the best Brazilian Centers for Professional Education,” says Brittes, from Hydro in Paragominas.

The company invested BRL 8 million (around USD 5 million) to build and equip the CEP, which counts five classrooms with capacity for 40 students each, four labs and a living area. The city of Paragominas offered an area of 34,000 square meters where the center was erected and Senai will be the institution in charge of the professional courses due to its experience in training people for industrial activities.

Senai expects to train more than 1,500 students by the end of this year, bringing many benefits for the region. “This center will prepare workers not only from Paragominas, but also from the surrounding municipalities, becoming an essential structure for promoting social development,” says Gerson Peres, Senai’s regional director.

This was welcomed by Hydro’s Fernando Simões Henriques, who pointed out how Hydro lives its mission of contributing to a more viable society.