◀ Current Projects
 
 

University for and with Waste Pickers

A university with and for waste pickers, where informal workers attend educational and training opportunities on diverse topics relating to social responsibility, entrepreneurship, waste management, circular economy, and more to promote sustainable livelihoods.

UNICATA is a construction between waste pickers and academics that aims to that aims to cover with adequate pedagogical and didactic tools the specific knowledge required for everyday contexts.

    • Promote social transformation through popular education;

    • Support processes that improve income for waste pickers;

    • Foster critical reflection through inclusive learning spaces;

    • Promote new ways of learning through community research;

    • Expand UNICATA to other locations, giving more waste pickers access;

    • Build inclusive, innovative and flexible curriculum content grounded in both popular and academic knowledge;

    • Make it easier for waste pickers to access public policies related to their work, so they can reflect critically on them.

    • Pair and peer teaching

    • Teaching focused on local contexts

    • Cross-cutting themes with attention given to issues of social class, race and gender diversity

    • Philosophy of ‘Buen Vivir’

    • Sustainability driven content

    • Community-Based Participatory Research

    • Participatory Research

    • Pilot project

    • Mobilization and communication

    • Monitoring and evaluation

    • Establishing Governance Structure (image below)

Click on the links below to know more:

UNICATA StoryMap 2025
unicata video
UNICATA WEBSITE
 

Governance Structure Framework of UNICATA

 

UNICATA Course

“Solid waste management and governance with the inclusion of waste pickers for a sustainable and fair society”, composed of 6 modules.

  • Based on Paulo Freire’s popular education pedagogy, the democracy of knowledge and the practice of peer learning.

  • Classes adapted to the needs of students applying different interactive tools (arts based methods) and means of communication (video, audio, photos).

  • Content adapted to the specific context of the city where the course is offered.

  • Open to waste pickers with or without completing basic education, avoiding structural barriers and exclusion criteria.

  • Classes adapted to the needs of students with the use of different means of communication in their academic production (video, audio, group work).

  • For each module, students who completed 56 class hours, receive a certificate of completion of the extension course issued by the University of Victoria (UVic) and the Federal University of ABC (UFABC).

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