Bringing alternatives through the performance arts, education & work programs to those children faced by the harshest of conditions, where child labor, prostitution and the drugs trade are rife.
Pernambuco in NE Brazil is notorious for youth violence, child labor, infant mortality and malnutrition. Conditions are made yet worse by a struggling education system and 75% illiteracy rates. Faced with these difficult realities, this school has won prizes and recognition for its efforts to both bring a sense of self-esteem and cultural rejuvenation into the community, whilst also working with the 100 children and their families to raise levels of education, income accessibility and self help.
Classes include: PE, dance, acrobatics, theatre, music, circus skills, self-help. Additionally after-school sessions with the child and their family, and work-related programs, help to improve overall educational and income prospects.
The light that this program brings to the bleak lives of these children, and their wider community, is impact enough. Yet success stories also show students breaking out of the cycle of poverty and violence, going on to perform and find related work.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
