We discovered that the rural youth in Maranhão are facing lots of challenges and uncertainties between “leaving and staying” on the land.

Among the difficulties in remaining on the land are the limitations imposed by the restraints placed on land tenure, low family income and consequently poor investment in production; as well as the difficulty of accessing public policies. Rural youth face various challenges in attaining their aims to improve their living standard and gain access to public policies such as: Education, Healthcare, ATER, Internet and Housing.

A problem experienced recently was one by a young boy, Geovane Oliveira, who is studying and needed to do a school task. He lives in a rural area and was in need of a computer and access to the internet to do the task. But, like so many others, he did not have access and this created a problem that was only resolved when a friend took him to the city where he was able to do the work. This is only one of the many cases that happen daily.
 

One of the principal focuses at the moment that is being widely debated is access to the Internet in rural areas.

It is one of the great problems, because country youth do not have access to the Internet. Other factors are the extremely poor quality of education, of houses, of roads and street lighting; among many others which need to be improved. In 2015 youth from Maranhão and from all over Brazil came together with various organizations and gathered in front of the Esplanada dos Ministérios to demand their rights.

“DON’T LEAVE THE LAND TO STUDY, NOR STUDY TO LEAVE THE LAND” (MÔNICA MOLINA).