Our walk in the sertão began in 2012 when José Carlos, who became known as Zé da Água, met Betânia do Piauí and its many poor villages around it. He came from the capital of Teresina, which is approximately 500 km to the small country town. The first actions focused on delivering emergency supplies such as water, food and clothing to people living in extreme poverty.

During this period, the hinterland was going through a prolonged period of drought, the worst in the last 50 years, so these emergency inputs were very important at that time.

However, after a short time in these emergency actions José and the other friends who supported the actions realized that these activities did not have the power to completely change the reality of misery and lack of hope that we experience in the sertão, it was then that in 2015 we joined friends and partners who share my dreams and ideas for a true transformation in the sertão.

From this premise of transformation and empowerment of the Sertão, the Novo Sertão Institute begins, which for 8 years has been developing projects in partnership with rural communities in the semi-arid region of the Northeast to generate transformation in local development. Our transformation program is based on 4 pillars: Education, Culture, Sports/Leisure and Income Generation with sustainability.