Through an innovative popular education project, the Popular Centre for Culture and Development (CPCD) - a Brazilian non-governmental organisation based in one of the country's poorest areas, the Jequitinhonha valley, has offered the municipality of Araçuaí, in the south-eastern State of Minas Gerais, the possibility of an educational revolution, in an attempt to combat the alarming statistics of the local educational standard. The 'Araçuaí: From educational intensive care towards an educational city' project was designed by an unconventional collaboration arrangement between the NGO, the local Secretary of Education and the Municipal Council of Children's Rights, where CPCD is responsible for designing and implementing local educational policies.