Sponsor's update from Amazonas, Brazil

Child sponsorship update from the SOS Children's Village Amazonas, Brazil from October 2007.

SOS Children’s Village of Amazonas is closing the year with positive results about all work done until now and through this report we would like to share with you our most important moments. Following activities are samples of what has been happening here and what is planed for the next months.
Summer school vacation was a great moment for children and a good new year’s start. Some children stayed in the village and others spent some time together with their biological family, resulting in an excellent experience, very positive to rebuild the affective bonds between them.

Also during last summer a new outside-the-village SOS house was opened in a near neighborhood. A different way to do our work but a quite efficient one since this kind of house, inserted in the local community, is a new model which offers children a better psycho-social development and integration with society.

Children and teenagers are doing very well at school. They took part in a whole-week event on environmental defense, becoming very involved and enthused to fight for the planet. Some teenagers still work in their first job besides studying at night. Also some of them take computing, guitar, English, Spanish, and professional courses.

Children are doing many courses as well, like football, dancing (modern dance and ballet), handcraft, drawing, etc. We point out that every Saturday, since last August, has been done a reading workshop for children, with a number of attendances very expressive. In September we had the Brazil’s National week due to the Independence Day, celebrate on September 7th. This week was dedicated to games, tournaments and celebrations. We are planning a religious event by December for those ones who will have the First Eucharistic.

Our co-workers organised a charitable breakfast aiming to strength bonds with SOS friends and make new SOS friends that are our local support to rise founds. We are very pleased with the results because many people came to know our village and work. During this event our children did a magnificent dance performance to the visitors. Also we had the Volunteer day in July when employees from the White Martins company accomplished a leisure day for the children with dance and crafts workshops. Also they have helped us with the maintenance of the infra-structure of one of our SOS houses.

Celebrations in Amazonas, Brazil

In partnership with Municipal Secretary of Culture we did an event named “Finding talents” at which SOS mothers and their children, as well as children from the Social Centre, took part in dance and art workshops, closing the event with an exhibition of the works done. The result? An enormous satisfaction for being part of it.

In September another event was done “Fried fish festival” together with the Alvorada community. It was a charitable lunch to rise founds and to strengthen the local community.

Taking part in the Tempos e Movimentos Convention, a celebration to the 40th anniversary of SOS Children Brazil, we produced a domestic video about environment preservation which was played by our children who were very committed and engaged with this project. Everybody loved the video, it was a hit! This month we celebrate Children’s Day with an ice-cream festival and a leisure day, everything dedicated to the children. For SOS Children’s Village of Amazônia anniversary we are organising a charitable feijoada*.

Christmas is a time for celebration and reflection. Some of our children after that goes to summer school vacation with their biological families, others goes to other places together with their SOS families, and some children spend here in the village with their SOS families.

*Feijoada is the Brazilian national dish, made mostly with black turtle beans, smoked pork ribs, dried meat, smoked sausages, and bacon.

Supporting children and communities in Amazonas, Brazil

Through the SOS Social Centre Amazonas, Community and Family Strengthening Programme has accomplished many significant actions, showing that every day our programme is stronger and has been accepted within the communities. Early this year, Social Centre organized a zoo trip for the children from Lar Alegre project, based in Bairro da Paz district.
Children from Projeto Comunitário Esperança do Amanhã (Community Project: Hope for Tomorrow), as well as their mothers, could take part in a painting course in March. Also in this same project 40 new children and their families have being assisted since the beginning of the year.

In June and July, it was offered workshops on environment and family as well as social projects. In one of these projects was worked the importance of the tree and its useful things. From this project they organized a play named “A tree opening its heart”.

Children also could go for a walk in the zoo, which was a real new adventure since it was the first time for the most of them. Educator Luiz shot this wonderful time for children and their families enjoy and remember whenever they want.
In September, an administrative assistant course was offered by SEMDEL - Municipal Secretariat of Local Economic Development - for communities’ residents. Our team will take advantage of this opportunity to work issues regarding citizenship during the course.

With great effort and support from those ones like you, we could develop some interesting activities for children and their families. We would like to thank you once more. We wish 2008 comes full of new partnerships and conquests and that our work be more and more efficient, making difference in the future of these children and families.

Thank you very much and Happy 2008!

Ruth Guimarães do Nascimento, Village Director; Maria Duveneide da Cruz, Social Centre Director; and Elena Soboleff, Sponsorship Department