Sponsor's update from Bahia, Brazil

Child sponsorship update from the SOS Children's Village Bahia, Brazil from Winter 2008.

Dear sponsors,

2008 Brazil celebrated ECA - Children’s and Adolescents’ Act - 18 years, which in our country represents full age of ECA, a very important legal instrument that represents protection and guarantee of children and adolescents rights, taking into consideration that they are people in development. To join this celebration, we did a parade pro-ECA, gathering together 200 people, and our technical team took part in a Congress and in a Regional Forum which had an audience up 300 people.
Currently Family-Based Care Programme assists 128 children within 13 SOS houses, and for next year we will open two more SOS houses placed within the neighbourhood. During this year we housed new 27 children and 24 were reintegrated to their birth family and one was adopted. Community and Family Strengthening Programme assists average 325 children at the Social Centre, 290 children at the community centre, besides mothers from the local community are involved in the planning and execution of the activities.

Positive results came from a partnership we got early this year, which enable us to do a project named Vem K vem V. Through it we are assisting 120 children who take part in many activities like karate, football, basketball, and volleyball, besides ludic workshops where they are motivated to discuss transversal themes. This project has several interesting points, one of them is integration of our children with those ones from the local community sharing experiences and ideas. Also this partnership made possible to children had the chance to take part in the Brazil Open hold in Costa do Sauípe, coastal region of Bahia renowned for its natural beauty and stunning beaches. There they met Guga, top-class Brazilian tennis player.

Once more our organisation work has been recognised by Lauro de Freitas city through Legislative that made a honorable mention to our SOS mothers in the Municipal Town-Council taking advantage of the International Women’s Day. Also this day was inspiration to organise an afternoon for reflection and leisure time to all our female co-workers.

Children growing up at Bahia, Brazil

Transform to Strengthen Project, offered by Community and Family Strengthening Programme, gave opportunity to some women learn to make beautiful things aiming to improve their socio-economic condition and empowerment. They learned to make rag dolls, which were displayed during a Dermatologist Congress, and are now beginning to customize t-shirts. Our goal is to foment creation of a cooperative to sell these items.

Highlights goes to our SOS mother’s team: a local TV channel did a special interview on their work. Moreover, SOS mother Maria Jussara wrote a letter to a famous local showman who after that visited our village livening up children and donating perishables.

Carnival got an early started this year, in the end of January. Once more, our children joined the carnival Blocos IBEJI and Sweet Candy, wearing a beautiful abadá [a kind of costume]. In June, Junine Parties happen, in which ones we can appreciate typical food, music, and dance, like quadrilha [a variation of square dance in which several pairs of dancers do a series of routines after a mock wedding is celebrated by a fake-priest under the auspices of the gun-brandishing parents of the bride whose honor was taken by an adventuring young man]. Also we had the Folklore Party, with samba and bumba-meu-boi dances, and Independence Parade celebrating Brazil’s independence from Portugal. Welcoming spring season, we did a lovely fair with parades, crafts tents, food, entertainments, and cultural activities.

Intelligent Life Project, an action to insert youth people into the job market, continues on with many activities getting involved several youths from our village and local community, for example 18 youths took a waiter course offered by Instituto Bom Pastor. Highlight goes to two of our teenagers: Maurício who continues his studies at UWC in Costa Rica having an outstanding performance; and Jaqueline who gave us a good example of young role model through her initiative to organise, articulate, and mobilize other children to throw a party first in homage to the SOS mothers, and after another one on Father’s Day which had theatrical performance, football match, and gifts. It was a marvelous time.

Our caretaker Fábio, also a natural educator, who has a good relationship with youths got their help to paint our court and organised a football team, which plays once a week. And it is not only that, team got their own official uniform!

Refreshing courses are done through Educational Meetings, at which themes as Current Children and Adolescents Scenario in Brazil, ECA’s Talking, and Child’s Development. To do that, we had support of Sentinela Programme, which assists children victims of exploitation. And it has taught our SOS mothers, educators, and co-workers to be able to stand up to this issue. Moreover, we continue on our partnership with Secretariat for Women Policies, which will do lectures on Maria da Penha Law, Racial Equity and Qualification for work, besides workshops on Gender and Violance against woman.

Seminars and actions were done to promote the organisation’s new methodological model on Integral Approach, thus both SOS Children’s Village Lauro de Freitas programmes working together to advocate and promote Children’s and Adolescents’ Rights. Emotional Education Group keeps on supporting co-workers in their emotional/person development, studying and trying to understand physological issues.

Co-workers, volunteers, and families continue on invoved in the collection of receipts, a Bahia State Government campaign named Sua Nota é Um Show de Solidariedade, something like Your Receipt is a Show of Solidarity, to return some part of the money from collected taxes to social projects according to the number of receipts collected by each project. Another fundraising action was the bazaar selling products with the support of the Social Centre.

Lots of actions have been done and our team has tried to give a hundred and ten per cent, sharing experiences and working in an integrated model based on competence, goodwill, and creativity to offer the best to our children, adolescents, and families. We know that our mission is a big and challenge one, nevertheless our strength relies on our belief “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” may 2009 enable us to do much more…

José Viana dos Santos, Village Director; Mariá Ferreira Cotrim, Social Centre Director and Márcia Bertoletti, Sponsorship Department