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Members of Instituto Ar and Instituto Alana present new study during event on Air Quality at the Ministry of the Environment

Integrantes do Instituto Ar e do Instituto Alana durante evento sobre qualidade do /ar seguram novo estudo
Integrantes do Instituto Ar e do Instituto Alana apresentam novo estudo durante evento sobre Qualidade do Ar no Ministério do Meio Ambiente

Brazilian cities have increasingly been experiencing peaks in air pollution, known as “critical episodes.” On August 18, for instance, São Paulo recorded the worst air quality level of this winter, according to CETESB: 212µg/m³ of PM2.5, meaning 212 micrograms per cubic meter of particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 microns. In April, Boa Vista reached even higher figures than São Paulo (317µg/m³ PM2.5). The same occurred in Manaus last October (499µg/m³ PM2.5). For comparison, the World Health Organization (WHO) considers up to 15 µg/m³ of particulate matter in the air acceptable. Children, particularly newborns and those in their early years of life, are among the most severely affected: air pollution can cause irreversible damage to their health.

To gain a clearer understanding of the indices used and the protocols adopted in different countries when very high levels of pollution are reached, Instituto Alana and Instituto Ar conducted the study “Air Quality on Alert”, launched during the event “Critical Episodes of Air Pollution”, organized by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MMA) and the Ministry of Health on the 20th, in Brasília. The report provides a comparative analysis of critical levels and emergency plans adopted in eight regions: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador (South America); the United States and Mexico (North America); and Spain, France, and England (Europe). The results show that Brazil falls significantly short when it comes to protecting its population, especially children.

“When air pollution reaches very high levels, immediate action may be required to reduce emissions and protect public health. In our research, Brazil and Ecuador scored the worst results. Our country has been outdated for more than 35 years, and no state has an action plan for critical episodes, except for São Paulo, whose plan dates back to 1978 and is severely outdated. In other words, we take no action,” stated Evangelina Araújo, air quality specialist and Executive Director of Instituto Ar, who coordinated the study.

WHO documents indicate that atmospheric pollution currently represents one of the greatest environmental risk factors for human health. According to the WHO, 50,000 Brazilians die each year due to air pollution. National air quality standards are based on indices established in 1990. Even with pollution peaks up to five times higher than in the countries analyzed in the new study—Brazil being surpassed only by Ecuador—these established thresholds are rarely reached, as they are overly lenient and outdated.

The report, which highlights major international air quality laws, also outlines measures adopted to protect children during critical pollution episodes. “Both in São Paulo, which exceeded the threshold for an ‘alert,’ and in Boa Vista and Manaus, where smoke from forest fires choked the city last October—making it the third most polluted city in the world, reaching twice the Air Quality Index (AQI) limit set for a state of ‘emergency’—nothing was done,” said JP Amaral, Nature Program Manager at Instituto Alana.

The study recommends both medium- and long-term solutions, such as encouraging active mobility in cities and creating green areas and parks around schools, as well as emergency measures already adopted internationally. In Colombia, for instance, the Plan para la atención de episodios de contaminación del aire del área metropolitana de Bucaramanga (CDMB) includes immediate actions to protect children during critical pollution episodes. When air quality reaches the “alert” level, schools suspend classes throughout the affected area. In emergencies, evacuation of the entire population within the perimeter exposed to pollution is carried out.

In the United States, the Air Now plan also includes general guidelines and specific measures for schools. Protocols begin at the “moderate” air quality level, with recommendations to reduce the duration and intensity of outdoor physical activities. In Spain, “horizontal strategic programs” outline long-term actions to improve air quality. There, the goal is to establish protection measures for vulnerable groups based on epidemiological studies conducted in priority areas, such as school zones, in order to determine epidemiological surveillance plans more effectively.

In London, the strategy is also long-term: the Healthy School Streets initiative implements a series of measures, such as reducing vehicle traffic, creating bike lanes, and developing green spaces and parks around schools, where pollution levels are monitored by sensors. “Our country is lagging behind in this debate compared to other nations, including those in South America. Brazil has a constitutional and moral duty to combat pollution and mitigate critical episodes, in order to ensure health and quality of life for children and for the entire population,” said JP Amaral.

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Alana, IABsp, and Residents of Jardim Pantanal Launch the Second Phase of the Neighborhood Plan

Imagem do evento no Espaço Alana, com close no material "Plano de Bairro - Jardim Pantanal Fase II". Imagem por Monomito Filmes,
Imagem do evento no Espaço Alana, com close no material "Plano de Bairro - Jardim Pantanal Fase II". Imagem por Monomito Filmes,

Jardim Pantanal is a neighborhood on the far east side of São Paulo which, located on the banks of the Tietê River, has a history of transformations, challenges, and strong community leadership in a highly vulnerable region. Bringing together a series of actions in urban planning, citizenship, and social development tailored to the neighborhood, the Alana Institute, the Institute of Architects of Brazil – São Paulo Department (IABsp), and local residents launched the second phase of the Jardim Pantanal Neighborhood Plan this Saturday (2), at an event held at Espaço Alana. The venue promotes improvements in the quality of life of families in the neighborhood, fostering leisure, culture, free play, and the strengthening of local networks.

This stage of the plan, developed for the neighborhood, was established by the Municipal Master Plan in 2014, with its first phase launched in 2022. However, the vision is the result of decades of effort: more than 30 years of struggle by residents demanding structural and targeted improvements in the region. The Neighborhood Plan was and continues to be actively built by the hands of local residents, serving also as a call to the community for action.

What is a Neighborhood Plan?

The Neighborhood Plan is an urban planning tool that encourages community participation in building actions and proposals for local improvement. It organizes and articulates various needs and proposals to present them to public authorities, aiming to positively transform the territory.

Initial Impact

For Joyce Reis, Master in Urban and Regional Planning, the Neighborhood Plan should not be understood as a process that ends with the publication of the material, but rather as a living movement, envisioned by neighbors, families, and the entire Jardim Pantanal community. For Fábio Moraes, a specialist in social urbanism, the plan is “a milestone that gives full autonomy to the community,” by offering data, resources, and technical grounding for residents to continuously demand improvements in the region.

Sonia Maria Ferreira, a resident since 1984 and member of the Association of Residents and Friends of Jardim Pantanal (Amojap), shared that more than just a neighborhood, “Jardim Pantanal was a people living on the banks of the Tietê River with the goal of improving life.” She emphasized that the plan was not created only by engineers or architects, but also by children, which symbolizes a future to be realized for them.

“This neighborhood plan does not mean only urbanization or having a place to store bicycles. It means having a place where we can live and grow.”

Nature-Based Solutions

Leila Vendrametto, coordinator of the Urbanizar program and PhD candidate in Environmental Science at the Institute of Energy and Environment at the University of São Paulo (USP), explained that some of the solutions proposed in the Neighborhood Plan include the creation of rain gardens; the development of green corridors to improve local climate conditions, such as temperature and air quality; and the creation of TiNis gardens (a tool based on planting seeds that can begin with just three pots or half a square meter of soil), where children help co-create and design spaces present in their daily lives.

What is a rain garden?

According to Verde SP, a rain garden is a permeable space that functions as a large sponge, helping cities better manage rainwater. They are built at a lower level than the street, so runoff water can infiltrate and occupy the space. Vendrametto stressed that while rain gardens help absorb water, they alone do not solve the community’s problems, “because the geographical conditions of the area, its soil, and the river require more robust and complex solutions.”

For her, nature-based solutions can be not only ecological but also aesthetic, as gardens, for example, “improve air quality, climate, and reinforce the beauty of the place,” while bringing children into the center of the socio-environmental perspective.

“Can we build a garden at the school entrance? A shaded space where children can stay? Bringing in more pollinators and creating more flower gardens to enjoy these spaces with living beings beyond humans further enriches the territory’s ecosystem. This way, children understand insects, pollinators, and a sense of well-being that might be invisible but is present.”

How Does the Neighborhood Plan Make a Difference for the Community?

“Eight years ago, we had a different outlook on life than we do today. Back then, even setting an appointment with public authorities was difficult. Today, we have greater access due to community mobilization, and the neighborhood plan allows everyone to participate and contribute,” said Reginaldo Pereira Santos, a resident of Jardim Pantanal for 19 years and president of Amojap.

He explained that for a long time, residents lost faith in change, as the area they live in is an environmental protection zone with many restrictions. “We who need housing don’t care if our house is on the riverbank, up high, or down low. For this to work, we needed mobilization.”

“Today, things have advanced a lot, like basic sanitation. A year and a half ago we were drinking dirty, muddy water, and now we have potable water.”

Sonia Ferreira added: “Politics starts with us, not with deputies or councilors.” She said the neighborhood plan “is not decoration,” but a tool to meet the population’s needs and dreams. While it stimulates political participation, “the government only acts if society demands it. It is our right, but we must move slowly and together.”

Among the results of the Neighborhood Plan, she highlighted the bike path and tours such as the Ciclotour between Jardim Helena and Itaim Paulista. “People come together to cycle within the neighborhood, showing that it is good and large.”

She also emphasized that political participation is not only about asking the government to fix a pothole or pave a street. Everything that is done must be thought of collectively. “Politics helps us think on a broader scale, and with that wider perspective, we achieve things we never even imagined,” she concluded.

Access the full publication of the second phase of the Jardim Pantanal Neighborhood Plan (accessible version).

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Alana is accepted as Special Consultant to the UN Economic and Social Council

Conselho Econômico e Social da ONU: na foto, um grupo de crianças brinca em roda em um jardim arborizado

The UN Economic and Social Council is the main forum for the discussion of international socio-economic issues within the United Nations. As a Consultant, Alana will seek to expand and bring forward demands and particularities to guarantee the rights of children in Brazil and in the global south

In December 2022 Alana obtained the status of Special Consultant at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations (UN). For a civil society organization, this status allows it to engage with the UN in a variety of ways, one of which is by participating in the Human Rights Council and, under specific conditions, in some meetings of the General Assembly.

By becoming a Special Consultant, Alana starts to strengthen ties with the main organization coordinating the economic and social activities of 14 UN agencies, including UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). “When civil society organizations obtain consultative status with ECOSOC, they have the right to actively participate in the work of the Council”, explains Ana Claudia Cifali, Alana’s legal coordinator.

The granting of consultative status marks the recognition of a work of political advocacy and technical contribution to the UN that Alana has been building and expanding over the years, especially in bringing demands and particularities to the international debate which guarantee the rights of Brazilian children and of the global south.

As a Special Consultant, Alana can now also send representatives to UN headquarters in New York, in the United States, and Geneva, in Switzerland, and present written and oral statements at meetings and conferences, among other actions that strengthen the relationship with the UN itself.

At the same time, Alana becomes part of a list of other Brazilian entities already recognized internationally for their contributions, such as Conectas Human Rights, the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), Geledés – Black Women’s Institute, Instituto Igarapé, the Sou da Paz Institute, the Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) and the Engajamundo Youth Association.

“In other words, we can now play an even more effective role in the international community, with the possibility of helping to apply and monitor international agreements, contributing technically, working as an alert agent and carrying out specialized analyzes in the defense of the rights of children. and adolescents, including issues related to the environment and the health of the most vulnerable populations”, concludes Cifali.

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TiNis: it’s time to create seeds

From the countryside to the city, inside and outside their homes, in schools and communities, we invite children and teenagers to cultivate, to see seeds germinate, flourish and bear fruit.TiNis: it’s time to create seeds, comes from the TiNis – Terra das Crianças project, launched in Brazil on November 24th by the Alana Institute and former model and activist Gisele Bündchen. The action is part of an initiative that emerged in Peru, created by the ANIA Association, present in countries such as Ecuador, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Indonesia and Japan.

Planted in different parts of the world, the project seeks, above all,  to strengthen and stimulate the child’s contact and emotional bond with nature. This happens from the creation of green spaces to play, learn and experience. 

From a small piece of land, where at least 3 potted plants or 1/2m² of flower bed can fit, children can now start bringing their TiNis to life! Accompanied by family members and guardians, the kids are able to water, flower and take care of this land They can learn more about species, germination, the cycle of plants and give free rein to their creativity.

It is an exchange. We create nature and are created by it. In short, we humans, rivers, birds, trees and stars are all connected and must contribute to each other’s creation and care. So that everyone can grow up in a healthy and happy way.  

Playing in contact with nature and cultivating this caring relationship develops empathy for all forms of life. This movement has made children and adolescents agents of transformation for a sustainable world.   

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to be inspired

In order to expand the reach of the project, Gisele Bündchen, in partnership with the producer Maria Farinha Filmes, is preparing an Instaseries with twelve episodes. Alongside their children, Gisele and other families record inspiring journeys in the creation of their TiNis in their homes.

In addition, the project also launches the book TiNis – Terra das Crianças, which tells the story of a secret and is also an invitation to the adventure of imagining, feeling and creating a TiNis. The short story is available on the project’s website in two formats: digitally illustrated and in audiobook – and can even be downloaded for free.

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Bringing your TiNis to life

To assist in this planting journey, the Criança e Natureza program, from the Alana Institute, developed the Guide for small creators of TiNis. The material brings together several tips so that children and young people from different social, economic, cultural, ecological, with and without disabilities can create their TiNis. And thus  teach us new ways of inhabiting the world. 

The Guide encourages observation, recording plant transformations. in addition to encouraging play in contact with nature. 

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It is time to create seeds. And in this call we invite all children to be guardians of a TiNis, to marvel and play with nature in this chain. Are you coming to plant with us?
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Alana Institute is accepted as a member of Child Rights Connect

The Alana Institute joins, in early June, the Committee on the Rights of Children, Child Rights Connect, an international network of children’s rights, focusing on advocacy in the United Nations (UN).

Formed by more than 85 international organizations from countries such as the United States, Canada, Germany, Uruguay and Peru, the network’s objective is to ensure that children around the world can fully enjoy their rights, as set out in the Convention on the Rights of Children.

“Being part of this network is a recognition of our position as a global organization that looks at the well-being and rights of children and allows us to be even closer to major international discussions and bring children from the global south, especially from Brazil, with more strength to the UN system”, says Pedro Hartung, Director of Policies and Children’s Rights at Alana Institute.

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Memantine as a potential treatment for Down syndrome

The Alana Foundation and the Brazilian Federation of Down Syndrome Associations (FBASD) held a webinar on April 29 to present research on the use of memantine, a drug recommended for the treatment of individuals with Alzheimer’s, as a potential treatment to improve cognition of people with Down syndrome or trisomy 21 (T21).

Funded by the Alana Foundation, with support from the Awakening Angels Foundation (USA), and in partnership with institutions in the United States and Brazil, the study was published in January 2022 in The Lancet Neurology, the world’s number one medical journal in the area of neurology. The results indicate that the use of memantine may be a future treatment option for people with Down syndrome.

The meeting “Study of memantine in trisomy 21: results and future implications” brought together researchers Alberto Costa, physician, neuroscientist and director of clinical research at the International Association for Research in T21 – Trisomy 21 Research Society (T21RS), and Ana Claudia Brandão, pediatrician at the Center for Pediatric Specialties at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, who led the research in the United States and Brazil. The conversation was mediated by Alex Duarte, a specialist in Clinical and Institutional Psychopedagogy, and Fernanda Machado, a graphic designer with Down syndrome who participated in Expedition 21 – First Empowerment Immersion for people with intellectual disabilities.

The researchers presented, in a simple and accessible way, the objectives and developments of this research as a result of an effort to promote the health of people with Down syndrome. Watch (in Portuguese):

Despite not having demonstrated the expected effectiveness on the cognitive performance of people with Down syndrome, the research raised the possibility that they may metabolize drugs, such as memantine, in an unusual way. The study also raises the hypothesis that treatments with higher dosages may benefit these people. This discovery opens the door to new debates about treatments capable of improving the cognitive deficits associated with T21.

People with Down syndrome develop the earliest form of Alzheimer’s disease, points out Alberto Costa: “This pathology is practically universal at the age of 40 for these people”. Ana Claudia Brandão comments that the study intends to create more tools so they can expand their memory, and consequently, their performance and their role in schools, in the job market and in society. “We aim to improve their quality of life, associated with health, work, well-being, a sense of belonging and security, and the quality of the environment.”

And why research on memantine? “There are already several pre-clinical studies using memantine that show encouraging and positive results and that made us plan clinical studies, which involve human beings. Memantine is also already used with proven safety and efficacy in Brazil, the United States and Europe in the treatment of Alzheimer’s. In our country, it is available in pharmacies and in the Unified Health System, the SUS, that is to say, it is an affordable medication for the population”, completes the researcher.

Further studies are still needed to assess whether treatments with higher doses can benefit people with Down syndrome, as this will make it possible to be certain that memantine will have an impact on the quality of life of these people.

Access the full survey here.