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¿Which NGOs have innovative programmes?
- Colegio del Cuerpo (Cartagena de Indias, Colombia) is a school and modern dance company directed by the famous dancer Álvaro Restrepo. The choreographic talents of its students are unsurpassed.
Proyecto Axé (Salvador, Brasil) runs a dance school and a ballet troup. The ballet troupe, based on the ideas of Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey, has performed in Europe and the US and is used as a model by other ballet troupes in Brasil. Other incredible dance programmes are Edisca (Fortaleza, Brasil) and the Movimento Pro-Criança (Recife, Brasil). These two groups combine elements of northern Brasilian folklore with modern dance.
Contact Álvaro Restrepo (Colegio del Cuerpo), restrepoalvaro@hotmail.com
Marcelo Moacyr (Axé), axe@ongba.org.br
Gilano Andrade (Edisca), edisca@edisca.org.br
Suzy Oliveira (Movimento Pro Criança), suzyarte@bol.com.br
- Proyecto Recreação (Belo Horizonte, Brasil) y Se essa rua fosse minha (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil)
Both of these projects use techniques employed in the circus and take advantage of the child´s innate desire to perform while at the same time inculcating a sense of discipline and increasing their self-esteem. Many children from these groups have performed in both national and international circuses.
In Colombia, Circo para Todos is a professional circus school for street children. Although there is no counselling element involved, it has been found that this training achieves better results than any formal type of therapy.
Proyecto Recreação <circodetodomundo@bol.com.br>
Se Essa Rua Fosse Minha <sessarua@visualnet.com.br>
Circo para Todos, felicity @cirqueportous.org
- AIACOM (Río de Janeiro, Brasil), Proyecto Travesía (São Paulo, Brasil), Centro Comunitario Salguiero (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil), Centro Comunitario Chico Mendes (Florianóplis, Brasil), Taller de Vida (Bogotá, Colombia), Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes (Bogotá, Colombia).
In communities which have a tradition of theatre, other NGOs use theatre as an activity and as a form of therapy for street children.
Contact AIACOM <siccons@uninet.com.br>
Proyecto Travessia<projtrav@dglnet.com.br>
Centro Comunitario Salguiero <salgueirosg@bol.com.br>
Taller de Vida, taller@colnodo.apc.org
Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes, acjbta@col1.telecom.com.co
- Cecria (Brasîlia, Brasil) works with Movimiento Nacional de Meninos e Meninas de Rua in a project for street children. Cecria organises self-help groups of abused street girls to speak about their experiences and, most importantly, succeeds in making them politically aware. In schools and community centres, these girls speak about women´s rights, put pressure on local authorities and make other street girls conscious of their situation.
Ediac (México DF) includes boys and girls in the organization’s management decisions and tries to help the girls to develop leadership skills. They also try to involve the children in the struggle to end child prostitution.
Contact Maria Lucia Leal <cecria@brnet.com.br>
Norma Negrete <negreteagua@hotmail.com>
- Centro Comunitario Salguiero (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil), Asociación Comunitaria Monte Azul (São Paulo, Brasil), y la Fundación Ximena Rico (Medellín, Colombia), Fundación Niñez y Vida (Quito, Ecuador)
These programmes are working to prevent children from ending up on the streets. They run day nurseries where the emphasis is on encouraging the children to maintain links with their families and to persevere in their studies. In the two Brasilian programmes, young women from the favelas are trained to become teachers in order to help them to find employment which then allows them to become responsible parents while, at the same time, building up their self-esteem.
Centro Comunitario Salgueiro, Mauricio Camilo da Silva <salgueirosg@bol.com.br>
Monte Azul, Renate Keller <Renate@monteazul.org.br>
Ximena Rico, María Cecilia Geale, ximenari@elsitio.com
Niñez y Vida, Guillermo Ordoñez, g-ordonez@ninezyvida.org.ec
- Taller de Vida (Bogotá, Colombia) trains young people as community researchers who use stories, music, theatre and video to explain the conditions in their communities. While they learn how to denounce violations of human rights, they also learn to appreciate those who are working for peace and co-existence. The results of their research are broadcast monthly on television. Along with the young people in the programme Benposta Nación de Muchachos, these children are working for peace in their communities by learning how to live together and how to peacefully resolve conflicts such as those between gang members.
Contact Haidy Duque, taller@colnodo.apc.org
Benposta, benposta@colnodo.apc.org
- La Fundación de Organización Comunitaría (Buenos Aires, Argentina) conducts health, gender and political education programmes in addition to motivating schools, families and companies to use their resources to benefit street children. Probably the most interesting programme of this foundation is a cinema school in which young people (either street children or those living in the very poorest communities) learn how to write scripts, act, film and edit their work.
Contact Elisa Pineda <foc@elsitio.net>
- CEDEP (Florianópolis, Brasil). In this programme, children from the favelas write letters to middle-class children in Italy. The result has been that poor, black or immigrant children start to recognise the positive aspects of their own culture -- football, flying kites, samba and the beaches -- through describing their country to others. This exchange has achieved positive results in keeping children off the streets.
Contact Miguel, <cedep@portadigital.com.br>
- Proyecto Meninos e Meninas de São Bernardo do Campo (São Paulo, Brasil) sponsors a samba school whose students participate in the Carnaval. The school encourages cultural awareness and self-confidence while, at the same time, making the public aware of the problems but also the potential of street children.
Acción Educativa (Santa Fe, Argentina) does the same as the above-mentioned school but teaches the murga, a popular Argentinian dance performed at carnivals.
Projeto São Bernardo do Campo <pmmr-sbc@netstar.com.br>
Teresa de Kakisu, Acción Educativa <fliakakisu@ciudad.com.ar>
- Universidad Santo Tomás, Faculdad de Trabajo Social (Santiago de Chile)
In the northern part of Santiago, professors and students at the Universidad de Santo Tomás have organised a network in which they all work with community organisations. 440 students and 12 professors work and do research in different communities and resulting theses are all related to this theme. The valuable training given to community NGOs and the university students themselves is an example that other universities could also copy.
Contact Malvina Ponce de León <mpleon@ust.cl>
- La Luciérnaga (Córdoba, Argentina) has 400 boys and girls who publish and sell 50,000 copies of a magazine (whose content concerns the lives of poor chidren) for US$1 each. They keep 75% of the receipts (a good job in this city) -- the remaining 25% goes for paying for printing, for the school run by La Luciérnaga, and for salaries for any professionals involved. Probably the most important result achieved in this project has been to change the public´s image of street children in Córdoba. People no longer view these children as a nuisance but rather as dedicated workers and as human beings.
Uga Uga is also a magazine published by young people living in poor communities in Manaus (Brasil) the main purpose of which is similar to that of La Luciérnaga. Interestingly, themes from the magazine are used as discussion topics in schools.
Contact Eliana Lacombe (La Luciérnaga) <elilacombe@yahoo.com>
Eneida Marques, Diretora Executiva (Uga Uga), agencia@agenciaugauga.org
- Acción Educativa (Santa Fe, Argentina) transports a Carrito de Libros -- a donkey-cart full of novels, stories, and children´s books -- to poor communities. This “library on wheels” emphasises the right of children to read. The kinds of books they have are varied but many of them are concerned with the lives of children who have been excluded from the mainstream. Since the mothers of these children help them in their reading, they also benefit and learn the importance of story telling and the maintenance of oral tradition.
In Perú, it has been demonstrated that “libraries on wheels”can do much to prevent children from living on the streets by teaching them a love of reading, how to use their free time constructively and by giving them a safe space in which to meet each other. CEDRO probably has the most experience with such libraries.
Acción Educativa, Teresa de Kakisu <fliakakisu@ciudad.com.ar>
CEDRO, Carmen Masias, cmasias@cedro.org.pe
- El Abrojo (Montevideo, Uruguay) works out of a bus that goes around the streets of Pocitos -- a rich area where many children work as street vendors or cleaning windshields. The bus has games, educational materials and a small library. It is a home away from the street for these children. In addition, there is always a street educator present to assist children with their studies and to help them to adapt to school life again.
Contact Paula Baleato <infancia@adinet.com.uy>
- Quetzaltrekkers is a mountain guide company which donates all its profits to the Escuela de la Calle (Quetzaltenango, Guatemala). Children are taken on trips to the mountains where they learn to appreciate their environment and survival skills. They are also given training to become mountain guides -- a good job in Quetzaltenango.
In Huarez, a highland city in Perú, two new programmes are using adventure sports as a way of motivating children to leave the streets.
Contact Guadelupe Pos de ECELAC <asoedelac@xela.net.gt>
- Mi Cometa (Guayaquil, Ecuador) knows that children do not leave home as often if their homes are nice places to live in. This NGO makes a connection between families and others in the community who help each other to improve their kitchens, bathrooms and other rooms of their homes. The results -- beautifully constructed houses which are also spotlessly clean and an increase in the self-esteem of the families -- have been impressive.
Contact César Cárdenas, micometa@on.net.ec
- Proyecto Axé (Salvador, Brasil)
This city is the home of Brasilian music and this NGO offers classes in drumming, guitar and other musical instruments.
Proyecto Axé, axe@ongba.org.br
- Semente de Amanhã (Recife, Brasil) has suceded in transforming the lives of people living in a very marginalised community by offering classes in dance and traditional music. Dance has been shown to motivate young people to participate both economically and politically in their communities. In addition, dance centers the community and provides a focus for cultural resistence.
Contact Nino Josivão Batista da Silva, sementeamanha@bol.com.br
- Pé no Chão (Recife, Brasil) uses “urban arts”-- grafiti,hip-hop, and breakdance -- as a way to integrate children into their communities and to empower them politically. They have shown that teaching urban arts along with politics motivates children to wish to return to school.
Cores de Belém, a municipal programme in the city of Belem also uses grafiti to help to integrate marginalised adolescents.
Contact Jocimar Borges (Pé no Chão), penochao@terra.com.br
Fátima Monteiro (Cores de Belém), macaesport@bol.com.br
- La Escola de Lutheria (Manaus, Brasil) is a professional school which trains students in the art of making guitars, charrangos and other instruments. Since only local and sustainably harvested wood is used, students also become aware of deforestation and its consequences.
Contact Rubens Gomes, Coordinador, rubensgomes@oela.org.br
- Curumins (Fortaleza, Brasil) uses skateboards (normally only rich children can afford them in Brasil) as an educational tool. Children become more integrated into urban culture while, at the same time, learn to channel their rebelliousness in a positive way.
Contact Raimundo Coelho de Almeida Filho, o Flor Futinele, curumins@fortalnet.com.br
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