Breathe News

Breathe/Respira Brazil Completes Intensive 10-day Program

After a year of preparation, six weeks of on site build up, the second Breathe Foundation event completes an intensive 10-day program at Breathe/Respira Brazil in Itacaré over the 15th to 25th of May. Over 60 participants during the course of the event joined in a wide range of activities on offer including working with local schools, art, sport, seminars, reforestation and infrastructure building projects in the scenic location of the highly threatened section of the Atlantic Rainforest. In an intensive melting pot of ideas and experiences focused on local and global issues, it created an platform bringing an eclectic group of visionaries and activists together to focus on practical solutions.

Organizing an event with such broad ambitions is difficult at the best of times, but doing so in the middle of the Atlantic Rainforest definitively adds an additional degree of difficulty. Torrential down pours often knocks internet out in town for days, phone reception “black holes” make communication and logistics even harder, and the natural laid back rhythm of Bahian’s can often throw time management plans into disarray, however the intense beauty of the Atlantic Rainforest, one of the five highest bio diversity hotspots on the planet and the nature of the people make it totally worth it.

The official event, scheduled over the 15th to 25th of May, in many ways, is the culmination of the work done in the build up stages. The Breathe Foundation advance crew hit the ground on the 4th of August to set up and close the official program. Within a week, realities on the ground brought unexpected challenges and the need to go with the flow. In partnership with CRÈME Int. Corporation funding to build a skate bowl to be donated to the town of Itacaré had been secured, only to find out that the local Hospital was facing closure within 10-days due to failing a Federal hygiene test due to a decrepit laundry. The only hospital within 75 km, this was not an option if a skate bowl was to be built. Fast action on behalf of the Breathe Foundation who committed finance and time, the Town Council, local Associations and the local radio station saw 30 volunteers turn up at 5 am, laying 90 square meters of concrete on the hospital roof in a community building exercise.  

Turning next to the start of construction of the CRÈME Bowl, again unexpected challenges in the form of an Icelandic volcano threw planning into disarray. Under an almost impossibly tight 4 week deadline to complete the CRÈME Bowl, designed by Stefan Hauser from Placed to Ride, the Construction Manager, Max Häring was stranded in Europe for almost a week throwing all plans to the wind. Fortunately, with the assistance of the Town Council, the Association of Surfing Itacaré and an incredibly hard working group of volunteers, the finishing touches of the CRÈME Bowl were complete two days in front of the official May 19th hand over to the town. Not before having to find some interesting construction solutions, including bending the coping by leaving it in the sun and forming the radius’s around palm trees.

Already two weeks before the official launch of the event participants were starting to arrive in town to assist in the set up. Including the Breathe Foundation President, Nicolas Müller, and VP, Chris Bachmann and several of the Documentary crew to name a few.  But the event really started to pick up speed when Opening Concert headliners, Jamaram arrived three days before kick off. With concerts scheduled back in Europe due to the launch of their new Album, “Jameleon”, they could only stay for the first official night, however wanted to get involved with local organization, work with the kids and create music workshops. Over the three days they were in Itacaré, they played a total of seven gigs, including in the small rural community of Tremembé, the Afro Drum Centre, the CRÈME Bowl, and the Opening Concert that had to be hastily re-arranged from it’s original location after a torrential downpour the evening before washed the stage away.

The Opening Dinner hosted by the Itacaré Town Council at the Community Centre in Porto do Traz, the oldest part of town was a traditional affair with Capoeira, traditional dress and foods. In one of the poorest parts of town, the Breathe/Respira Brazil participants were separated to one side, and local kids to the other and asked to pick a local to share their meal. A small but unique gesture enjoyed by all. Following the dinner, the entire town turned out on the Pituba street to see three acts at the Opening Concert, Jamaram and Billy the Artist live painting during the encore. The event now open, Breathe/Respira Brazil was in full effect, the result was noting less than the perfect start - all issues aside.

All eight local schools had already been involved in build up, with the Breathe Foundation providing paints, brushes and materials to each to create their own Breathe/Respira Brazil banner, and all eight providing six students to make two communal banners for the event. From New York, Billy the Artist set about painting the CRÈME Bowl with kids from all the local schools where he outlined the design and worked with the kids to fill the color before returning the next day to finish the outline. Billy enjoyed himself so much he extended his trip for another two days so he could conduct art workshops with two of the local schools, creating murals at each. He also created four additional pieces at Breathe/Respira Brazil’s media HQ, Galleria 195, during a art exhibition for the event. He was a one man painting frenzy in the week duration of his stay.

The Swatch team turned up to join Nicolas Müller with Anne Flore Marxer, Xavier De la Rue, Mirjasm Jaeger,  Richard Permin and Ann Enderund in time to join the first of the Breathe Seminar Sessions presented by Swatch. The first of three Seminars over the course of the week, guest speakers were by local Ornithologist Leonardo Patrial and Biologist /Photographer Fabio Copala speaking of the specific issues facing the 7% of the remaining full growth Atlantic Rainforest. In two 30 minute presentations many of the pressing issues were discussed and presented ranging from illegal logging, the black market pet animal trade, poaching and habitat destruction.

Running parallel to the other projects, the Atlantic Rainforest Institute in partnership with the EOG Association for Conservation had started work on the Foundation building. Using recycled wood for the frame, coconut husk fiber for the roof, and recycled bottles as bricks for the walls, and all local natural materials, the AFRI Foundation building is also built on the Bosque da Passagem - the Rainforest School - and will double as class rooms during the day and as a centre for agricultural workshops for local farmers working on the reforestation projects at night. Breathe participants as a group departed the Gallaria 195, with seedlings in hand and walked the 2 km  through town to the take part in construction of the Foundation house before hiking through primary Atlantic Rainforest to the Art Jungle, tree planting on the way. The AFARI organization is trying to replant and protect 700,000 square meters of forest in this area by donating small plots of land to local farmers to plant and harvest Guarana  

At the Art Jungle, world renown artist, “The Poet of Trash”, Ramiro Bernabo conducted clay workshops with the Swatch team and other participants including snowboarders JP Solberg and Olivier Gittler. Participants were also given a tour of the Art Jungle and all of the works contained in the surrounding jungle, before a sunset football match and BBQ at the Art Jungle central building. Attended by both Breathe participants and representatives on many of the local associations and organizations, an impromptu drum circle broke out with the locals taking charge with traditional songs well into the night.

Heavy rains that night resulted in a planned trip to another low income rural village, Taboquinhas, being cancelled for the main group due to the roads being impassable even for 4x4’s giving all participants a well earned chance to breathe. The documentary crew were lucky enough to meet a local called Roots who was able to get them through where they had a chance to visit his organic farm and spend a day. The resulting clip speaks for itself and the documentary crew came back blown away and have posted a clip to let you see why.

The CRÈME International team riders of Tom Webber and Patrick “Brownie” Pittl, who had been killing spots in and around Itacaré for a week, joined Billy the Artist and local school children to finish the painting of the CRÈME Bowl in time for it’s inauguration and donation to the town, sneaking in a couple of warm up sessions in the process. At 4 pm the bowl, officially designated as the closest skate infrastructure to the beach in Brazil, was handed over to Ro, the Vice Mayor of Itacaré and officially opened and donated to the town by CRÈME Int. A tandem drop in by Weber and Pittl opened an insane session joined by Rio based talent Marcio Tarobinha on a Tribo Skate Magazine and ESPN Brazil shoot. TSG Equipment provided safety equipment, and the evening saw kids as young as 8 years old dropping in with no shoes amongst the professional skaters.

The final two Breathe Seminars presented by Swatch occurred on back to back nights. Under the title of Technology, Alternative Energy and Close System Production, it featured  Joseph Schoeninger of Beautiful Days presenting the ‘Cradle to Cradle’ concept, followed by Cid Simões representing AMBIEN Effective Micro Organisms and completed by Alvaro representing Ecolight and was held at the Swatch house. The following evening the Breathe Seminar presented by Swatch was held at the Gallaria 195. Under the subject of Water, Natural Resources and Expoitation, speakers  Marcos Mariani from Preserve Amazonia, Hannah the Mermaid and Ian Green from Greanheart gave powerful presentations approaching these issues from several directions. A breakdown of their presentations will be available shortly.

An activities day with some of the local associations saw a beach volleyball, beach soccer tournament taking on the Breathe International team. Warm up started at 11 am and went till 2 pm before the Canoe Association, with five boats, one with traditional sail brought our star, yet surprising guest, Hannah the Mermaid, to 100 meters from shore before she dived over board and swam in to meet a swarm of ecstatic children. Wooed by her encouragement, up to 50 children joined her in the harbors water swimming and splashing with her until she was hoisted up by one of the locals to be taken to lunch with the entire beach volleyball and football participants to a lunch provided by Breathe. Hannah ‘the Mermaid’ Fraiser’s performance is aimed at raising awareness for water issues, and she captured the attention of the entire town. The afternoon saw the competitive part of the day take shape, and it was obvious early that the Breathe International team was completely out of shape, getting a thumping in the Volleyball. The beach football, astonishingly, Breathe International scored it’s first ever win... it has to be said, however, the average age of our opponents was roughly 10 years old!

The last, yet possibly one of the most moving experiences of the entire 10-day program, was a visit by the Swatch team to the Bairro Novo Community Center called Crianca Feliz. The Crianca Feliz Community Centre services 30 children in the poorest area of town, financing itself through donations from the neighborhood itself. Taking it upon themselves, the Swatch Team went to the supermarket and purchased several weeks of food, visiting the Centre and cooking for the kids. In an area that rarely receives outside visitors, the children mixed excitement and curiosity as the Swatch team arrived with Hannah Fraiser baring sacks of food and set about cooking with them. A planned half hour visit turned into a three hour stay as food was cooked and shared with the 30 kids at the Community Centre.

Through a little confusion and a little fatigue, the program for the final day was canceled as participants took the chance to make private plans with each other and head to the multitude of beaches in the region and enjoy the perfect surf and weather conditions. The documentary team headed out to Serra Grande to over look the proposed location for a new port called Porto Sul. A highly politicized development, cleared by the Brazilian Government, but resisted by almost all of the local organizations, it is set to destroy another 1.7 million square meters of the highly threatened Atlantic Rain Forest. Leaders in the resistance to this project include people like Rui Rocha of Floresta Viva. A planned manifestation was cancelled as many of the main instigators were attending meetings in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia. Over looking the proposed area it is obvious to all it is a world tragedy and yet more pressure on the Atlantic Rainforest.    

The final function of Breathe/Respiration was a pizza party at the Itacaré Surf Camp, home base for the Breathe team throughout the event. A Reggae band rocked up out of nowhere set up and played through till just before midnight when a couple of the pre-edits to the upcoming Breathe 2 documentary were screened. At five minutes to midnight, the 60 remaining participants, doco crew, volunteers and locals all gathered around and put their feet in the pool, a tradition followed on from Breathe Costa Rica, and at 12 midnight, Drew Stevenson officially thanked all who had attended or helped over the 10-day Breathe/Respira Brazil event, and closed the event for 2010.

What was achieved is difficult to measure in quantitative terms. There is a new laundry at the Hospital, the CRÈME Bowl has been constructed, the AFARI foundation house is close to completion. But it is possibly the subjective where the biggest strives have been made. International awareness has been brought to many of the local issues, interaction and co-operation has been extended to the local community, and probably the most important of all - an eclectic group of people from across the globe, all working in different areas, have come together, meet each other, talked and have left here as ambassadors for change.

Thanks to all who participated, particularly CRÈME  International, Jamaram, Billy the Artist, the Swatch team, the never resting documentary crew and most of all, the volunteers who helped make Breathe/Respira Brazil 2010 happen.

we hope to see you next year.