ParCo was founded in 2018 as a location-based organization with a mission to put communities in the drivers seat of creating local solutions to be just, effective and lasting. The name comes from the first letters of the words Parceiros Comunitarios which means “community partners” to reflect its bottom-up approach.
Ilidio Cole and Juliet Lyon, both long time residents of Vilanculos, met at a community meeting about plastic bottles washing up on the beaches in May of 2018. Ilidio had started a beach cleanup team and Juliet offered to link them up with support. That initiative attracted the attention of twenty local tourism businesses and Xico Gaivota. In October of 2018, Juliet and Ilidio were alerted to the problem of seahorse poaching in Mangalisse village and brought together public and private collaboration to tackle the problem using the same “community-led” approach. The ball kept rolling from there…
Today, ParCo has launched around 12 viable projects in Vilanculos in the areas of education, sustainable fisheries and biodiversity, circular economy and social protection. We have a staff of seven (including two security guards) and operate out of rehabilitated town-owned ruins.
ParCo - Associacao dos Parecieros Comunitarios Board Members: Ilidio Cole, Inacio Nhassengo, Juliet Lyon, Bernardo Matsinhe, Lima Zibane, Anita Huo, Dionisio Chitsumba, Arone Mapangule, Cristina Langa, Elisa Americo, Mateus Manhice
Ilidio Cole
has been ParCo’s Project Coordinator since 2019. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the Eduardo Mondlane School of Rural Development (ESUDER) where he wrote his thesis on sustainable fishing. He grew up in a fishing family and still lives close to the ocean and manages several fishing dhows in his free time.
Juliet Lyon
moved to Vilankulo as a Peace Corps volunteer in 2004 after graduating with a degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago and working for a year as a community organizer. She worked in international development in Mozambique for over a decade and earned a masters from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
In 2022, ParCo incorporated as ParCo Community Partners Inc. and registered as a 501c3 in the USA to provide a mechanism for overseas fundraising. It is governed by board members Juliet Lyon (President), Corey Lazar (Treasurer) and Lisa Chatman (Secretary), John Homan and Autumn Trayer.