CEN eliminates poverty and breaks the cycle of dependency in the Brazilian Amazon by empowering individuals and their communities. Our goal is to help communities achieve their own objectives and to sustain these gains over time by:

• Raising residents’ awareness that they can resolve the problems they face
  Through our successful PRACTICAR methodology, we strengthen residents’ basic skills and enable a “can do” outlook which breaks the cycle of dependency and forms a strong foundation for self-reliance.
• Helping communities develop the ability to meet their own needs
  We provide essential and vocational skills, build social networks, mentor local micro-businesses, and find and develop markets for local goods and services.  We also help residents gain access to credit and secure needed infrastructure.
• Partnering with others to remove obstacles
  We develop collaborative partnerships with other NGO’s, government agencies, outside communities and the private sector to remove structural obstacles that are larger than individuals or single communities can overcome on their own.
• Bringing everything together
  A holistic approach best meets the specific and unique needs of the communities we help.  Our comprehensive model is self-sustaining, self-managed and locally focused.

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