Vaga Lume Association

Vaga Lume (firefly, in Portuguese) is a Brazilian nonprofit organization created in 2001 to empower children within rural communities of the Amazon by fostering literacy and operating community libraries as knowledge sharing spaces. Over this 20 years, we have helped over 25,000 children to pursue bigger dreams, respect cultural diversity and treasure their own identity. Our work takes place in the Amazon, one of the most important regions of the world, not only in terms of cultural and environmental diversity, but also in terms of area and population. It encompasses 9 countries, 33 million inhabitants and it is the home of 385 different indigenous ethnic groups. However, in the region lie... read more Vaga Lume (firefly, in Portuguese) is a Brazilian nonprofit organization created in 2001 to empower children within rural communities of the Amazon by fostering literacy and operating community libraries as knowledge sharing spaces. Over this 20 years, we have helped over 25,000 children to pursue bigger dreams, respect cultural diversity and treasure their own identity. Our work takes place in the Amazon, one of the most important regions of the world, not only in terms of cultural and environmental diversity, but also in terms of area and population. It encompasses 9 countries, 33 million inhabitants and it is the home of 385 different indigenous ethnic groups. However, in the region lies one of the lowest Human Development Index in the country and 20% of its population is functional illiterate. Vaga Lume operates in 86 rural communities (indigenous, riverside, roadside, rural settlement people or quilombolas - Brazilian with African descent) of 22 municipalities in the Brazilian Legal Amazon region, which encompasses nine federal states (Acre, Amapa, Amazonas, Maranhao, Mato Grosso, Para, Rondonia, Roraima and Tocantins), occupies 59% of the Brazilian territory and has 20 million people (12% of the Brazilian population).