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Proud to be a model

With the arrival of the Teles Pires Power Plant and the São Pedro Settlement Revitalization Project, Diemerson Júnior da Silva became proud of the place where he lives.

Shame. That was the feeling that overwhelmed Diemerson Junior da Silva, then a teenager aged 13 to 14, when he said that he was living in the São Pedro Settlement, in Paranaíta (MT), around 2008. “The people at the Paranaíta Center said that we lived on a plot, which is what they called the settlement,” recalls Diemerson, now 23 years old.
The memories of a place that was “just bush” seem as distant as the shame Diemerson harbored some time ago. Like many other families in São Pedro, the Diemerson family lives on what it produces on its plot of land, and the young man does not even think of being another migrant from the countryside to the city. “Today we have hope. My place is here,” he says.
In São Pedro, the settlers are their own masters. Let Diemerson, who is now the secretary of the Mixed Cooperative of Farmers of the São Pedro Settlement and is about to graduate in Accounting Sciences, say so. “It's me, my younger brother, my father, and my mother at the property. We were one of the pioneer settled families. We deal with dairy cattle, we are setting up fish farming, we raise chickens, pigs, everything. We already have three municipal schools and one state school in the settlement. This development affects our self-esteem. We are one of the largest settlements in Brazil and we can be a model. I want to see this grow here.”

You don't even have to ask Diemerson what feeling he has today instead of the shame he felt back there. Just look into his eyes when he talks about Saint Peter. Pride.