Anti-racist education for a violence-free future

Dear Friends and Supporters

Since we last sent you a report, a lot has been happening in the Cordoaria Quilombo, so we’re sending HUGE thanks and gratitude to those of you who support us, through donations or by letting people know what we do, it is all much appreciated.

We’d like to start today with a:

I - SUCCESS STORY+ CRIATIVOS: Because we believe in young people developing their communities

Betânia, you’re so cool, so great and special. I’m so grateful to you, thank you so much for everything you do for us. I love you. Anonymous statement by one of the group’s female participants.

Viva a Vida’s heart beats with a huge desire to work with young people, particularly in a region where they have so many needs. So, we were excited about starting a new project with young people in the quilombo.

The +Criativos project seeks to create work opportunities for the young quilombolas in Cordoaria, constructing a positive image, strengthening self-esteem, creating a feeling of belonging and developing a cultural repertoire. Using literature, art, play, technology and community knowledge to help these young people dialogue with each other and their community, enabling them to broaden their view of themselves and of others. For literate, critical and engaged young people!

Thus began our pilot girls’ group +CRIATIVOS: YOUNG PEOPLE AND CITIZENSHIP, which is formed of five 9^th grade adolescents from the quilombola community, who are too old to participate in the main Afroteca activities, but who have always supported us and participated in community activities.

The five girls receive a grant of BRL 100.00 (approximately US$17.50) per month, because we understand how important it is for them to have enough for, at least, the bare minimum. The project is taking place over five months, from July to November 2024, during which the girls have been debating territory, identity, gender and democracy. In addition to learning about and discussing these issues, they are also expected to carry out activities to benefit their community.

During the leadership training, we have taken the girls to visit important community members and strategic locations, such as the house of Griot Dadu, the Catholic Church and the Beijuzeira Flour House, to help them identify the strengths within their territory and to study, with love and recognition, the quilombo’s cultural and ancestral value. Helping them to develop an understanding based on its potential, rather than simply focusing on the negative.

It was very important, for example, for the girls to take part in a collective replanting activity in a neighboring community. They were able to learn about the importance of collectivity, how to get organized and, above all, to understand individual responsibility for a community, sharing, looking after their peers and, literally, getting down to work.

To further strengthen this spirit of collectivity, the girls are producing other materials for the benefit of their community, which they will present at our first LITERARY FAIR, to be held next month in the quilombo. First, is their video about democracy, with everything - text, voice, photography and image - made entirely by them. The other is a storytelling session, using puppets to tell a story about diversity focused on colorism, with a text created by Educator Betânia, based on her conversations with the teenagers.

We note our Educator Betânia’s resourcefulness and interest in new social technologies. She started with at Viva a Vida this year to work with the children in the Afroteca and was then invited to set up and support the group. A request from organization that she readily embraced.

Betânia really lives up to her title of Educator, she won the girls over with a great deal of respect and subtlety, and has loads of ideas and proposals, using her own resources and her affectionate spirit. But what has surprised us most is Betânia's capacity for innovation: she has no expertise in technology, but has managed to produce incredible content and taught the girls how to write scripts, take photographs, make videos, etc.

When I discovered I was an Educator, I promised myself I would work in the service of education for freedom. Being with the girls from the +Criativos group has been incredibly challenging and transformative. With them, I've learnt, in practice, that living involves more than academic knowledge; I've honed my sensitivity and, several times, deconstructed my ideals. The excitement, enthusiasm and strength the girls have for learning, experimenting and discovering new ways of living and being in the world, are a driving force that, with support, guidance and love, will allow each and every one of them to get exactly where they want to go. Betânia, Educator.

Our assistant Michele works in the same way. Michele is a young quilombola woman from Cordoaria, who was also invited to work with the children and who has also embraced this new project. Her support for these activities has made Michele a great Viva a Vida partner.

When I arrived at the project, I didn't have much experience in working with teenagers, I've always worked with children aged 3 to 4, but I was surprised, working with them has been an incredible experience, every day is a new learning experience, with lots of discoveries. There were places I’d never been, the Catholic Church, for example, and I was surprised by every detail, every story, I'm so grateful for the opportunity to take part in this beautiful project. Michele, Assistant.

And here's what Betânia has to say about Michele: Michele has a huge heart. [She’s] insightful, proactive, resolute. She'll do anything to get the job done. She’s attentive to the children, it's great to see how much she knows about Cordoaria and how she spares no effort in helping the community grow. Michele is generous and it was through this generosity that I was able to establish bonds of affection and trust with the children in the Afroteca reading sessions and workshops.

We end this story with great pleasure and joy, knowing that we are training girls to become more aware, to get involved in their territory and, who knows, to be future educators! Check out some of the girls' comments about the project:

What I've learned the most:

- To communicate with people and to work as a team.

- That for everything you have to have a team and that I don't need to be ashamed of anything because we are a team. Kananda

- I’ve learned a lot about democracy and I learn new things on the outings, which I can then put into practice with my group, which only has girls in it. Amanda

Many thanks to all of you who support this amazing work, VIVA +CRIATIVOS!! Your support has also helped us carry on our regular activities, as you will see below.

II – AFROTECA MUVUCA – AFRO-LIBRARY

1. Regular workshops: our work at the library continues with 90 children (from kindergarten to 5^th grade), focused on various Bahian authors, whose children’s books value black esthetics and Afro-Brazilian traditions.

 -   I’m delighted to see your work close up, to be able to rely on you. I knew about Viva a Vida’s work from another school and I was so happy when I arrived here and saw you were here already. New Vice Director of the Nossa Senhora do Santana School. 

2. Holiday Camp: we organized a series of open-air activities for the children when school was closed during the June recess. These included storytelling, sensory workshops and lots of fun! It is so important to provide these activities, since the Afroteca is these children’s only option for entertainment, culture and leisure.

 - These activities are so important, when the holidays come around, I wonder how I’m going to manage with all these children at home. Mother of a holiday camp participant

3. Storytelling: in addition to our regular activities, we always have time for extra storytelling. It’s a really relaxing time to look at books with other themes and address new topics. This time, our Coordinator Evelin told the story from the book A MENINA DA CABEÇA QUADRADA (THE GIRL WITH THE SQUARE HEAD), which encourages children to talk about alternative activities to screentime.

II – YOUNG PEOPLE

1.The Favela Lives Project: we are continuing to visit local state schools to apply the State Government research from the Superintendency for Policies on Drugs and Vulnerable Groups. This involves meeting young people and running workshops to construct a booklet about harm reduction, which will be distributedin the same schools and at the First Literary Fair, which will take place in the quilombo next month. This semester we will also present an article which is the result of these workshops and research. 

2.+ Criativos: as mentioned above,this is a youth empowerment and quilombola community leadership program, run for and by girls, aimed at training new community leaders. The emphasis is on female roles, in order to value and make reference to the women who came before them and played an active role in the quilombo’s history. Training meetings discuss democracy, identity, gender and activities aimed at the community. At this stage, we are running a pilot project with 5 quilombola girls, with the aim of expanding this experience next year. One noteworthy activity involves the girls producing a short video about democracy, with the text, direction, photography and filming all carried out by the girls themselves, with support from our Educator Betânia and her Assistant Michele.

 III – CAMPAIGNS - for more information about these campaigns, check out our Instagram @vivaavidaorg.

1. Combatting the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children and Adolescents: on 18 May we ran a social media campaign to raise awareness of this issue. We used the campaign’s official material, created by the Federal Government and reproduced all its posts, raising the profile of this important cause.

2. Environmental racism: June is the month in which we debate the environment. This year, we decided to address the environmental racism experienced in indigenous territories and quilombolas. We created social media posts to raise awareness that territorial segregation, the deforestation of green areas and the pollution of rivers are all part of structural racism, in this case ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM!

 IV – VISITS

1. World Environment Day: we were invited to talk to the employees of the company Indorama, one of our partners/funders, about the environment within the quilombola territory. We made use of the occasion to talk about how racism can also be environmental. We talked about our intervention projects in the quilombo and the importance of the company’s social responsibility for these communities.

 - It’s essential to understand what the company is really doing in its surroundings. It’s very important to be able to make this link between the environment and racism, I’d never thought of this before. Indorama employee

2. Pelourinho International Literary Fair - FLIPELO: this is an annual event in Salvador, which Viva a Vida can’t miss! This year we took the girls from the + Criativos group. They visited the African History Museum, watched a play about indigenous people and visited book stands focused on the black, indigenous and quilombola populations.

 3. Feira de Santana Literary Fair – FLIFS: Educator Betânia and Coordinator Evelin also attended this fair in a neighboring municipality. To ensure Viva a Vida’s work is up-to-date and to expand our networks, they attended a roundtable discussion about negritude run by Bárbara, a Doctor, Teacher and Activist in this field.

4. Collective Replanting: the municipal Department of Urban Planning invited the +Criativos group to participate in a collective activity to replant the area around the Capivara River, which is at risk of informal settlement. We took the group along to help them understand how to run collective and community activities, how to get organized and which of these strategies could be replicated in the quilombo.

 -  We were really happy to receive these young people, it’s so important for them to be involved and get engaged in this exchange. Activity Coordinator.

 V – TRAINING

1. Training in Mobilizing Resources (Change the Game Academy): In August, our consultant, Cressida, took part in a two-week training course run by the Ecumenical Coordination of Service (Coordenadoria Ecumênica de Serviço: CESE), on behalf of the Change the Game Academy (which is run by the Wilde Ganzen Foundation). The course focused on how to deliver the academy’s mobilizing local resources training program for grassroots organizations in Brazil, which is aimed at systematizing the work of grassroots organizations and promoting political and financial sustainability.

 - The course provided a great opportunity for Viva a Vida to systematize its approach to Mobilizing Resources, applying new tools and fine-tuning its communications to improve its fundraising efforts. Cressida, Volunteer Consultant

2. Global Fund for Children – Evelin (Coordinator) and Cressida (Consultant) continue to participate in these CEO Circle meetings to support global grassroots leaders. Alongside Rodrigo, a colleague from Mexico, they mediated a group meeting about how to promote COMMUNITY FLOURISHING, through a discussion about good practices and strategies to strengthen communities.