Marilene Alves de Souza, also known as Leninha, the Vice-President of the State Parliament in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, will be visiting Switzerland and Germany. She will be accompanied by Barbara Ide, President of the Tourism Council in Canavieiras, Bahia, and her husband Hans-Ullrich Ide. He worked in development cooperation in Brazil for many years, including for the Swiss aid organisation HEKS.
While in Switzerland, the group will attend the Blue Community HEKS – Aid Organisation of the Protestant Churches’ Lunch Cinema event in Zurich, titled ‘Sempre Viva: The Struggle of the Flower Pickers in the Cerrado’. They will also meet with the Blue Community Switzerland at their annual meeting in Bern.
In Büdingen, Germany, they will visit the Wolfgang Ernst Gymnasium, the world’s first Blue Community School. During discussions with city councillors, the deputy mayor, members of the municipal Blue Community working group, teachers, and pupils, topics such as globalisation, water in rural areas, ideas for school cooperation, water education, and the differences in lifestyle between Brazil and Germany will be covered. A key focus of the visit will be an exchange with state and district parliamentarians from the Wiesbaden region. Tourism in rural areas will be a key topic in Barbara’s discussions with Arnika Haury, the official responsible for tourism. Both cities are comparable in size and are located in rural areas: Wetterau in Germany and Rota do Cacao in Bahia, Brazil.
Short CV
Marilene Alves de Souza, also known as Leninha, is a biologist who holds a Master’s degree in Social Development from the State University of Montes Claros (UNIMONTES).
Currently in her second term as a state representative, she is the first woman to hold the office of Vice-President of the Parliament. Previously, she chaired the Human Rights Commission and headed the Women’s Bank.
She has always based her work on defending agroecology and family farming, as well as combatting climate change and misogyny and LGBT phobia. She worked at the Centre for Alternative Agriculture in northern Minas Gerais (CAA) for almost two decades. She has also worked for Articulação do Semiárido Brasileiro and Cáritas Brasileira, advocating for traditional peoples and communities, family farms, and grassroots organisations.
As president of the Human Rights Commission of the Minas Gerais State Parliament and PT faction president, she is committed to the right of access to water. The work of this commission is particularly important in the current context of threats to the Rio Pardo from mining and agro-industry.
