Child sponsorship update from Porto Alegre, Brazil

Update for child sponsors from the SOS Children's Village Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Dear sponsors,

Year’s end is coming, time to think about what we did in our lives, which impacts our actions had, and which were our positive results and what we need to do to improve as professionals, sons, daughters, parents, brothers, sisters, and friends, since we have several roles inside the society, but we are unique as individual. And it is from this unity that comes our equity as human beings; people who have a life, suffer, become happy, sad or frustrated, and even than we have hope in a better world. Having it in mind, we would like to thank you for your generosity and support, which enable us to develop our work and through it be able to plant a seed of hope and a better quality of life in the heart of our children.

Lots of important events happened along 2008, and we have been seeking to intensify the research for birth families of our children, which goes to meet our actual legislation in which children must be kept together with their birth family, if it is possible, maintaining their affective bonds and giving to them the right to live in family-based. We reintegrated six children and adolescents to their birth families and we continue on giving them a follow-up and support, aiming to strengthen their bonds. During this process is very important take into consideration the bond that remains between reintegrated children and their SOS mothers, because affection, visits, and worries with the good development of the child last.

Our SOS families welcomed seven new children. Continuing on our work regards to National Plan on Community and Family Based Care, we had good outcomes reintegrating some children and adolescents to their biological families. Also we guarantee the community and family-based care through maintaining bonds between children and biological families.

Events at Porto Alegre, Brazil

Keeping on our work, we housed 15 children within our SOS houses, which brought happiness and a feeling of renovation for our co-workers since all our work results we can see through happiness of those children who are reintegrated to their birth families and those ones who needs to be cared and loved within one of our SOS-families. As SOS mother, Ana Lucia says: “most important is to keep the connection with the reintegrated children. It is essential to me and my children who stays within our SOS-family since it represents affection, care, respect, and understanding”. Having in mind this point of view on affection, bonds, and protection in a children’s and adolescents’ rights perspective, we are developing actions that can reduce the rate of infantile abandonment through our Community and Family Strengthening Programme, which help in the development and empowerment of families and community.

Currently our Community Centres assist 250 children and 199 families. Some meetings are been done with children’s parents within the community, starting Love is Educate Project, which aims to bring families to think about their responsibilities on children education and quality of life and to build a way to enable them to do social control within their communities. We did 24 meetings from February to July with these families, discussing themes on women and citizenship, guarantee and promotion of family and human rights. Also we invest in the capacitating and qualification through monthly meetings for our educators and SOS mothers, counting on partnerships and other NGOs that work with advocacy and promotion of children’s and adolescents’ rights and their families.

On July 13, ECA – Children’s and Adolescents’ Act, turned 18 years since its implementation and to celebrate it we organised a week full of activities on children’s and adolescents’ protection policies within communities. Concluding this week, at the Community Centre Ursinho Pooh we launched the campaign “Everyday is an ECA day”. Everybody was involved in the activities: SOS families, families from the local community, co-workers, community leaders, etc. Children loved the event which had recreative activities, games, music, etc. offered by SESI.

Growing up at Porto Alegre, Brazil

Programme for youths still happens once a week, composed by three groups, in each meeting, through workshops, lectures, debates, and group discussions, is pointed out a different approach aiming to develop and strengthen the youth as a protagonist, like “our life in the Village and the meaning of community”, always working values that will help us through our lives. With this programme, youths had the opportunity to go to “Knowledge Olympiads”, held by FIERGS (Industries Federation of Rio Grande do Sul) and SENAI (National Industrial Training Service). There they could see new technologies to improve performance in the factories, besides took part in interactive games.

Our 14-year-old Willian takes part in a course at PROSEPA, a socio educative programme for teenagers coordinated by Brigada Militar de Porto Alegre (Porto Alegre Police). He is enjoying a lot, because one of his dreams is to become a police officer and this course will give him a view of this reality, preparing him for the future. Willian took part in two parades together with his programme group, one on September 7th celebrating our Independence Day (Brazil’s independence from Portugal), and the second one on September 20, which celebrates Revolução Farroupilha (The Farroupilha Revolution was a revolutionary movement that took place in Rio Grande do Sul between 1835 and 1845 against the economic-political centralization imposed on them by the Empire.). All his SOS family was there watching his parade which made him proud and happy.

Other new is that we have many children taking ballet and guitar classes at SENAI. In addition, four of our youths are passing through emancipating process, giving their first steps into their independent lives. One of them is working as apprentice at Grupo Hospitalar Conceição and studying automotive tech course at SENAI, having a good performance.

We thank you in behalf of our children, adolescents, and families and we would like to share with you, dear sponsors, our happiness and pleasure with our results and we wish you a Marry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Luís João Krein, Village Director; Aldenize Fin, Social Centre Director; and Márcia Bertoletti, Sponsorship Department