Abstract:

Despite being considered the capital of the 'lungs of the world', Manaus, located in Western Amazonia (Brazil) has the second worst statistics in terms of afforestation, losing only to Belém, Pará, among 15 Brazilian cities with more than 1 million inhabitants. But studying the environment and health also means a mandatory observation of family dynamics and community with all that is in their members introjected as a model to be followed. The challenge ahead is to formulate an environmental education, a political act aimed at social transformation and improvement of health conditions in the family and community.

Objective: To produce tree seedlings and planting them in home spaces, building, collectively, new patterns of relationship of family and community with the environment and, consequently, better health and quality of life in an urban area.

Methodology: This is an action research involving 250 elderly neighborhood of Petrópolis in Manaus, Amazonas, in the production and planting of 500 tree seedlings in home spaces, with the participation of grandparents, parents, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, reaching a total of 500 seedlings planted. The educational work proposed here is based on the pedagogy of Paulo Freire, whose epistemological strategy is the main subject of dialogic interaction among themselves and with reality.

Results: Results showed that the elderly were involved actively participating in training and producing seedlings proposed project. 500 seedlings were produced by the elderly, planted and cared by family. It was noticed that the elderly were motivated mostly by the possibility of gifting their grandchildren and great-grandchildren with a tree that would keep for a long time the bonding between these generations. Parents were involved in compromising the care of the sapling and the children (grandchildren and great-grandchildren) came to enjoy this one alive and enduring, perpetuating the memory of his grandparents. There were produced educational materials to facilitate understanding of the guidelines provided during training. With this material, it was possible to answer several questions about the care of the seedlings that emerged in training. When the plants reached an optimal size for transplantation, they were removed to the place of permanent planting. To step transplant, the elderly were tracking an agricultural technician. There was involvement and participation of individuals and collective moments of meetings and training constituted an opportunity for political participation and the construction of citizenship.

Conclusion: The research could appreciate the interrelationship of knowledge and practices that create collective identities and shared values and solidarity actions on the reappropriation of nature, a perspective that privileged dialogue between knowledge and improvement of intergenerational family ties. It is believed that the participation of professionals in the health sciences and humanities projects in Health and Environmental Education allows an awareness of social and broader environmental perception and the inseparability of theory and practice, allowing the construction of a practice that contributes for the development of equilibrium relationships between the environment, society and human health.

Keywords:

Education, Health, Environment.