Élida Dreer

The paper ‘Universidade pública em extensão e ação: catadores de materiais recicláveis e a COVID-19’ (Public university in extension and action: informal recyclers and COVID-19) has been selected for the thematic section “Responses from public and private universities to the COVID-19 crisis in Brazil: Science and research doing their part” at the Journal Revista Tecnologia e Sociedade.

COVID-19 has generated a global crisis in public health and the economy, but many universities have taken steps to minimize negative impacts on society. The extension project ‘Atentar-se à Exclusão para Contribuir com a Inclusão’ at the UTFPR proposed an emergency action to tackle the pandemic. The article, written by Prof. Stella Maris da Cruz Bezerra and the students Giulia Mazeto Nunes, Élida Marques Dreer, Adrineia Tecchio Gonçalves, and Yara Muller dos Santos, describes the action involving collaborative efforts to advise and empower informal recyclers from local associations in obtaining emergency aid. The approach comprised research on occupational health, surveying the needs of their families, defining a campaign strategy for action and the initiative continued with the supply of medicines and hygiene & cleaning products, and with assistance with registration in government aid programs. As the paper reports, the extension project actions do not end in an assistentialist character but demand social and civic responsibility in valuing the work of recyclable material collectors, during and after the pandemic.