Givânia Maria da Silva

As a quilombola educator and activist, Givânia Maria da Silva has dedicated the past 25 years to fighting for the rights of her community. After university, Givânia became a teacher and later a director at a school in Conceição das Crioulas, the quilombola community where she grew up. She soon realised the curriculum didn’t acknowledge quilombolas’ history, further disengaging students. To help set future generations of quilombola students up for success, Givânia co-founded CONAQ, a national social movement representing quilombola communities’ rights.

With CONAQ’s grant, Givânia will work to reduce the dropout rates of quilombola girls. She will gather new data on the barriers to education they face and lead a two-year training course for 50 students and 50 educators from across quilombola regions. Students will learn about the history of quilombola territories, quilombola education, racism, gender, sexuality and public policy. Educators will learn how to make the classroom a safe space for quilombola students and ensure their curriculums are inclusive and responsive to gender, ethnic and racial differences. Together with these trainees and CONAQ’s existing network of partners, Givânia will lead community focused efforts to push leaders to invest more in education and start implementing the National Curricular Guidelines for Quilombola School Education, which were approved in 2012. Givânia helped create the guidelines, establishing criteria for the construction and operation of schools, safe school transportation and a quality, contextualised education.