When the power goes out in my community, everything slows down. The fridge stops. The fan falls silent. The internet disappears. At night, darkness takes over the houses all at once. Here in Marajó, it’s common for us to go up to two full days without electricity simply because it rained or because a tree branch touched the power line. For those who live far from the city, every blackout weighs heavier: it affects health, education, work, and safety. From an early age, we learn that energy is not guaranteed – and that when it’s missing, many rights go missing too.
I was born and raised here. I am a quilombola woman from the Mangueiras community, in the municipality of Salvaterra. My first fight was for our territory. I joined the Abayomi black youth group when I was still very young, and it was there that I learned that defending the land is defending life. I studied biology at university, driven by the desire to better understand and protect the place where I live. In 2022, I joined the Marajó Observatory (Observatório do Marajó) as a project manager, expanding my work into protecting the rights for safe climate and energy.
For a long time, energy insecurity was part of our daily lives, but it wasn’t yet at the center of my work or my activism. Before the power grid arrived, we relied on candles and kerosene lamps. Then a diesel generator came, running only a few hours a day. Later, electricity from the local thermoelectric plant. And about five years ago, the Tucuruí transmission line arrived, bringing energy from a hydroelectric plant. Even so, everything is still very unstable. Bills are high, many families fall into debt, and any system failure leaves the community in the dark. Living through this is how I truly understood: access energy is not just infrastructure – it is about dignity.
Marajó Observatory and partners joining 350’s Draw the Line mobilization, calling for a Marajó free of oil. September 2025. Photo credit: João Paulo Guimarães
I also came to understand that energy justice is an essential part of climate justice. And as the impacts of the climate crisis intensify with droughts, wildfires, and changes in the water cycle, another connection becomes even clearer: all of this is also about social justice. Without energy, basic rights fall away. Full access to health, education, communication, and work becomes impossible.
At the Marajó Observatory, our work is precisely to bring the voices of the territories into the spaces where decisions are made. We create letters and educational materials, strengthen popular participation, and work to open pathways where there were once only closed doors. That’s how I became involved with the Energy of the People (Energia dos Povos) campaign, led by 350.org.
So far, the campaign has trained 1,593 people across 71 groups and communities, offering tools, information, and confidence so they can fight for a transition to clean energy that brings energy security to territories like mine. Since we began, seven partner communities have already achieved important advances – such as repairs to their electrical infrastructure and the inclusion of their territories in the national social electricity tariff policy.
350.org and partner organizations have also helped secure the implementation of 10,000 solar energy systems in the Amazon through government programs – placing direct community participation at the center of public policy and strengthening our energy autonomy. It’s not just about installing solar panels: it’s about building together, respecting those who live here, and listening to what truly matters to us.
I dream of a future that isn’t far away. Next year, we will apply even more pressure to ensure that the National Energy Transition Plan is done the right way: by listening to those on the front lines. We need to occupy the debates and decision-making spaces where laws and public policies are designed — so that they reflect who we are, respect our culture, and meet our real needs.
Here, we always say: “Nothing about us without us.” And I keep going. For my community. For clean energy as a right. And for the climate and social justice that we insist on building every single day, even through hardship – but always, and more and more, with hope.