Juremas Children in the Forest of Spirits

Clarice Novaes da Mota

This in-depth study examines the colonized native groups of the Kariri and the Shoko of North-eastern Brazil and it shows how a threatened minority group can effectively help to shape its future and how small groups of disenfranchized individuals can recover their ethnic identity and human dignity....

Latrine Building

Bjorn Brandberg

This book describes a practical solution to the lack of basic sanitation facilities in the form of a 'Sanplat': a specially designed concrete platform which can be installed easily in rural latrines to improve sanitation and safety. It has footrests to help users find the right position to avoid fou...

Looking Beyond Credit

Jonathan Dawson, Andy Jeans

In recent years, credit has become the predominant form of support to small producers, while other forms of business development services have diminished. Looking Beyond Credit assesses the need for targeted business development services other than finance, their growing importance among small produ...

The Flavour of Latin America

Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz

Jane Smith

Forget the mass-produced tortilla chips and E-flavoured salsa dips. Discover the taste of real Latin American food, as diverse as its beautiful landscapes, drawing on age-old indigenous recipes with influences from Spain, Portugal and Africa. From the snow-capped mountains of the Andes there is drun...

Benedita Da Silva

Benjamin Medea, Benedita da Silva

The first black woman from a favela to become a congresswoman and a senator in Brazil, Benedita da Silva has overcome an intimidating range of social obstacles. Born into a poor slum-dwelling family, she became a councillor in Rio, then a Federal Deputy and is now a congresswoman for the PT (Workers...

The Boulder Concept in Building Walls

This brief was written BY the Building Advisory Service and Information Network (BASIN) providing information resources on low-cost building technologies.

Brazil In Focus

Jan Rocha

Brazil is depicted as a land of global superlatives, boasting the best football, the largest rainforest, and the world's worst social and economic inequality. It's vibrant culture is best known for Carnival and samba and attracts thousands of visitors each year. The Carnival capital of Rio also show...

Eastern Caribbean In Focus

James Ferguson

The idyllic landscapes of the Eastern Caribbean belie a dramatic and often cruel history. Fought over by the imperial Navies and vulnerable to natural disasters, these small islands have also been marked by slavery, migration and a tradition of resistance. With their population rooted in every conti...

Ecuador In Focus

Wilma Roos, Omer Van Renterghem

Ecuador is one of the major tourist destinations in the Americas, offering unparalleled colonial architecture, dramatic landscapes and the eco-tourist mecca of the Galapagos Islands. But behind its colourful markets and mountain scenery lies a more complex country, divided by geography and race and...

Daughters of Caliban

Consuelo Lopez Springfield

Haitian women and "voodoo" healing; Cuban women in the midst of economic crisis; Jamaican women and the unspoken racism of beauty contests. These are just three of the dimensions of this multifaceted survey of contemporary Caribbean women. Looking at a region where race and gender play vital roles i...