WIEGO's Cuidar Project shed light on the health risks that waste pickers face with a focus on finding solutions. The project was a response to waste pickers raising concerns about their chronic exposure to biological contaminants, chemicals and rodents, muscle pain from repetitive motions, and interpersonal tensions arising from disorganized processes.
ShareThe Cuidar Project, a joint initiative of WIEGO’s Urban Policies and Social Protection Programmes and waste picker cooperatives in Belo Horizonte, from 2017 to 2020, expanded and shared health-related knowledge, enhancing waste pickers’ connections to local partners in the health-care field. It aimed to diminish health risks. The project positioned WIEGO well to address health risks as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, including providing capacity building for waste pickers in Brazil through the CataSaúde Viraliza project.