In the last few weeks, the 2022 Population Census Coordinator in Ceará, Cássia Alencar, has taken trips inland to strategic areas for the census operation. Visits were aimed to increase Census advertising in areas where data collection has been facing most difficulties.

Several dissemination actions taken in the Itapipoca Area

The first trip took place between October 17 and 20, to the Itapipoca Area, and it was there that visits started. On Monday (17), in a meeting with the regional Census Coordinator, Raimundo Rogaciano, and with the data collection team, the census pace and the dissemination strategies adopted were evaluated. On the same occasion, the team also received the dissemination material to be used in the city. In that same morning, Ms. Alencar interviewed an enumerator named Shirley, who was seven-months pregnant of her first child and had already gotten answered questionnaires from almost 800 hundred housing units. The interview would become an event in the city, and was later spoken about in the local media.

Also on the 17th, the Dissemination Coordinator went to the municipality of Amontada, where she visited two schools, one of primary education and a high school facility, in order to spread the news about the Census among children and teens. On the occasion, leaflets were handed in to students, who were also given IBGE school atlases as part of their library collection. The digital Census cards were also shared with the directors of each school, so they could give them to students’ parents.

On Tuesday (18), the cities of Miraíma and Itarema were visited. In the former, there was a meeting with the data collection facility team and they received material to be given to the population. In the later, a primary school and another high school were visited, and the same sensitization strategies adopted in Amontada were implemented. Besides dissemination in schools, the team also visited a healthcare facility in Itarema, where material about the Census was handed out to agents who will visit housing units.

The municipality of Jijoca de Jericoacoara was visited on Wednesday (19), with a focus on Vila de Jericoacora, a locality that would be enumerated from the following week on. Besides the meeting with the Census team to monitor data collection and the dissemination actions, other measures were implemented in order to accelerate enumeration in the area: visits to two primary schools and a nursery school, a meeting with healthcare agents and another one with the head of the Jericoacora Autarchy (ADEJERI), administration office in the locality. The Census message was spread in each visit and meeting, together with the delivery of printed material and request of cooperation in dissemination.  

The last day of visits to the region, Thursday (20), encompassed the municipalities of Acaraú and Cruz, where dissemination actions that had been successful in other cities were repeated. In Acaraú there was a meeting with the data collection unit, with material delivered, and in the city of Cruz dissemination was carried out in three primary schools and high school facilities, besides a visit and sensitization action in a tourist attraction of the municipality, called Buraco Azul.

Dissemination actions in the Itapipoca Area

“We were very well received in all these places,” said Ms. Alencar, who went back to Fortaleza, state capital, where the IBGE Superintendence in Ceará is located. She had a feeling of having fulfilled he duty after the first series of visits around the state, and was ready to take one more trip for the dissemination of the Census.  

Work strategies planned in the Crato, Juazeiro do Norte and Iguatu Areas

Between November 8 and 10, Cássia Alencar took a second trip, then to the Cariri Area and to the Central-Southern part of the state. The first city visited was Juazeiro do Norte, on Tuesday (8), when Cássia Alencar, together with the Census coordinator in the region, Joana Balbino, visited the city hall and talked to local authorities. The proportion was to establish a big number of partnerships to improve dissemination in the municipality.

The visit generated good results: the first lady and the, Sandra Cavalcante, recorded a dissemination video to share on social media and she also scheduled a meeting to discuss support from healthcare agents to the census data collection; the Special Census Secretariat for Institutional Relations, Cremilda Sampaio, contacted the administration of Cariri Garden Shopping to promote, together, a day for the dissemination in the commercial space. The Secretariat for Economic Development and Innovation, Wilson Soares Silva, made himself available to contact the Shop Manager Chamber (CDL), the Shopkeepers Union (Sindilojas) and the industries in the municipality; the Tourism Secretary and Religious Pilgrimage, Renato Wilamis de Lima, compromised to speak to priests in Juazeiro to help spread the Census message; and the Secretariat of Culture, Vanderlucio Lopes Pereira, volunteered to do the same to priests of the municipality.

“We were warmly welcome and the municipal administration was fully available to help the IBGE. We even have some strategies to put into practice, and have a lot already arranged,” says the Dissemination Coordinator in an interview she gave to Progresso newspaper, hosted by broadcaster João Hilário on Progresso Radio Station in Juazeiro do Norte. On the same day, Cássia Alencar visited two building management companies in order to help facilitate the enumerators access to the apartments and to make managers more aware of the importance of taking part in the Census.

Dissemination actions in the Juazeiro do Norte Area/i>

Besides going to Juazeiro do Norte, the Coordinator also visited other two locations: on Wednesday (9) she went to the municipality of Crato, also located in the Cariri area, which is led by Coordinator Leandro Feitosa; and, on Thursday (10) she went to Iguatu, a city in the Central-Southern area of the state, which is supervised by Coordinator Tamires Amâncio. In both visits, meetings were scheduled with communication assistants and there were interviews to local radio stations.