In 1992 what was then a small and recently created organization, the Rainforest Foundation Norway, started to engage in education projects for indigenous peoples in Brazil - ... because many indigenous communities, as well as their pro-indigenous supporters, expressed the need to handle the interaction with and the pressures from the outside world in a better way.

"Our ambition, together with our Brazilian partner organization (some of them already involved in such projects for several years), was to develop an educational system, which would combine respect for knowledge, culture, language and social values of each indigenous group with the provision of new skills and knowledge necessary for dealing with those new challenges. The approach would have to culturally sensitive, bilingual and definitely innovative," states Lars Løvold, Director of RFN in the introduction to the book.

The book is based on four evaluations: among the Yanomami (2001), in Rio Negro (2003), in Xingu (2004) and in Acre (2007). It is written by Eva Marion Johannessen, a Norwegian consultant, researcher, writer and educational psychologist (she has a PhD from the Department of Special Needs Education at the University of Oslo)with Dr. Marta Azevedo, a Brazilian demographer, now and independent consultant who formerly worked for ISA (Instituto Socioambiental).

In October 1997 180,000 pupils entered streets, gardens, homes and workplaces all over Norway as part of “Operation Day’s Work” to do one day’s labor, earning money to support indigenous education in Brazil. Their solidarity effort resulted in 23 million Norwegian kroner that since were invested in schools in the rainforest of the Amazon.

A pdf-version of the book may be downloaded for free from the website of the Rainforest Foundation Norway: http://www.regnskog.no/Om+Regnskogfondet/Publikasjoner/Andre+rapporter

More on the work of Rainforest Foundation Norway and the work in South America, Sout-East Asia, Oceania and Central Africa on http://www.regnskog.no/Languages/English