The Boca da Onça Ecotour committed to sustainability in ecotourism provides qualification and literacy programs to its employees and dwellers of the area in a partnership with governmental agencies. The BOCA DA ONÇA SOCIAL PROJECT has a schedule of social actions aimed at building a society concerned with the preservation and conservation of its space as well as with the value of its roots and cultures.

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The Boca da Onça Social Project, created in 2004, started with the mission of providing literacy programs and qualifying the labor force, since the distance and the hardships of getting to the nearest towns made it impossible to those people to go to schools or other means of learning. Therefore, the program was set up as follows:

• Year 2004 / 2005 - EJA – Education for Adults and Young Adults:
  - Partner: Bodoquena’s Town Hall.

• Year 2006 / 2007 / 2008 - Projeto Saberes da Terra / Rural Tourism:
  - Partners: Education Department/ Federal Government and Mato Grosso do Sul State Department of Education/ Inspecting Office for Specific Education Policies/ Process Management in Elementary Education in the Countryside.

The curricular organization of the Saberes da Terra program respects the production cycle, the crops and makes it possible for the students (adult or young adult) to enhance their schooling while receiving professional qualification.

To illustrate the importance of social accountability in ecotourism, the Boca da Onça Farm congregates 16 families, which include 50 dwellers, 30 of whom are direct registered employees. These people have the following benefits:

• Religious services.
• Physicians and Dentists (Health Center of Bodoquena/MS).
• Soccer team and parties on Christmas and the Saints celebrations in June.
• Production and sales of local products: handcraft, sweets and preserves.
• School material.

Today, with the results achieved and the sustainability of the enterprise we can point out the following changes in our collaborators behavior:

• Increase in productivity, consequently improving self-esteem;
• Using the labor force of the local community decreased the turnover of employees.

Therefore, Boca da Onça contributes to sustainable development and expects to be building a better world.