Projeto Travessia
Projeto Travessia applies the Pedagogy of Desire (created by Salvador’s Projeto Axé) to the context of São Paulo. In spite of being the world’s second largest city and Brasil’s business capital, São Paulo long lacked large programs to work with street kids, and Travessia attempted to step into that gap, working as a coordinator among the other programs and shelters.
Travessia largely follows Axé’s model, but with several important differences. Instead of music and dance, the program emphasizes theater (culturally more appropriate for São Paulo) -- when I was in the city, children were preparing a play by Berthold Brecht (!). They also stress “letramento,” literally “literacy,” but more cultural literacy than simply the ability to read. They find the parts of the world that street kids have been able to read, then expand from there: for instance, the kids may have learned to read the letters or numbers on busses, or the shapes of street signs or advertisements. This knowledge becomes the seed of a bigger tree. A cartography project begins with similar ideas: children create maps of “their city,” and then learn about the rest of São Paulo.
Work begins on the street or in the parks where the kids hang out. Educators emphasize games that they know could be better played on a table, or inside a house, then begin to hint, “aren’t there better places than this?” When children want to leave the street, educators begin work with families; they can offer scholarships as a carrot to the families.
The program attempts to integrate the children into the life of the city: they go to museums, the theater, movies, and restaurants. Thus, they “construct citizenship.”
Curiosity is central to Travessia’s work; they consider it one of the most important desires in the pedagogy of desire.
Having seen that the ecology of the street depends on children begging from stores and restaurants, Travessia has begun a program to educate small businessmen and women how to best help kids. Rather like Ednica in Mexico, they attempt to involve all of civil society in the struggle against youth homelessness. Though they have found some resistance at first, the program has shown real signs of progress.
Many programs have a problem with “disligamento,” the process by which children leave the program. Travessia (“Passage”) is penetrated by the idea of coming and going; the program is only a passage, not a constant place.
Travessia’s funding structure is innovative an excellent. They parlayed one contact with a member of the Banker’s Union into hundreds of thousands of dollars of grants from banks.
Rua São Bento 365, 18 andar
Centro, São Paulo, SP
01011-100
tel: 11 3105 1059/ fax 11 232 7437
Contact: Rosilene Nunes (<travessia@travessia.org.br> or rosinunes@bol.com.br)
www.travessia.org.br
