Empowering Young Brazilians - Art and Mobilization

Dear Viva a Vida Friends and Supporters,

We hope you are continuing to stay safe and are able to access vaccines and all the other measures required to stay well.

New pathways in the midst of the pandemic! 

Viva a Vida’s work is entirely focused on the community, in a large part on the region’s public schools. With the uncertainty of the pandemic, at one point we almost thought that Viva a Vida’s core work would no longer be able to continue. But with 16 years in the fight for Human Rights and the anti-racist struggle, and with so much commitment to our young participants who need us, once again, we have reinvented Viva a Vida.

 As you know, activities have been moved online and, with the support of your donations, we decided to put into practice one of our great dreams: to launch a documentary about Drug Policy, something that may seem remote, but which has a direct impact on the daily lives of the young people in our community.

Although we did not have many funds for recording, through great partnerships with the Federal University of Bahia, the Black Initiative for a New Drugs Policy, the Run to a Hug Program and OKAN Videos, we have been able to realize our dream.

“ASCENDENDO IDEIAS”, or “LIFTING UP IDEAS: for a New Drug Policy”,is our new documentary addressing the construction of Brazil’s drug policy and topics ranging from religion, drug trafficking, child labor, public safety, racism, the genocide of the black population, public policy and harm reduction.

With all the material recorded, we received some essential funding from the Global Fund for Children (GFC) to launch the documentary, with a live transmission of a debate with well-known specialists on Viva a Vida’s YouTube channel and that of the State College of Vila de Abrantes, the high school we work most closely with.

This material is a landmark for the institution which believes in the formulation of new public policies to guarantee that young black people in city peripheries have the right to live, with less risk of early deaths from the violence caused by the so-called “War on Drugs” in Brazil. This is particularly serious right now, when we are living under the fascist policies imposed by Brazil’s current president.

Our original intention was to use the video for drug prevention training for 200 young people. However, with your support and that of GFC, we are now going to run drug prevention and human rights classes for more than 1200 high school students, using the documentary as our main educational tool.

We are hoping to raise further funds to add to your invaluable donations so we can use this tool to train educators, teachers and other professionals and disseminate the content in other municipalities, cities and states.

The documentary (in Portuguese) can be accessed at: YouTube.com/ongvivaavida

OTHER ACTIVITIES OVER THIS PERIOD:

Collective community action at the House of Flour

Young people from Viva a Vida were invited to participate in an important collective activity at the Cordoaria Quilombo - the restoration of the House of Flour. Part of the roof had collapsed due to heavy rains in the state. Our young people helped in the restoration and cleaning up.

We are very grateful for our partnership with this location, which represents the region’s black ancestry.

Many thanks to our young people for their help!

Suitcase for Youth

We have been invited to represent our region in the Suitcase for Youth project, which provides activities to promote public policies for young people around Brazil. The Suitcase for Youth project is an initiative of Canal Futura, which has provided the material and training for this year, with future dissemination coming from young people themselves.

The program grew out of consultation and work with the Integrated Center for Sustainable Development Studies and Programs (Centro Integrado de Estudos e Programas de Desenvolvimento Sustentável: CIEDS) and aims to value the personal journeys, life projects and social promotion of young people, strengthening public policy in order to guarantee their basic rights. The project uses audio-visual techniques, music, theater, dance, the arts and educational games to construct discussions and debates.

Quilombo Social Action

Through partnerships with the company Braskem and the Municipality of Camaçari’s Food Bank, we have distributed 100 staple food baskets, 100 hygiene kits and 50 vegetable packs for 100 female-headed households living in the Cordoaria Quilombo. These action “feeds” families who are experiencing difficulties because of a lack of work due to the pandemic.

We would like to thank Viva a Vida’s young participants and our President Juracy Bahia, who carried out the screening and distribution with the help of Senhora Luzinete from the Bijuzeiras Group. This was detailed work to locate those families who really need this support.

GFC CEO Group

Viva a Vida’s Coordinator Évelin Salles and our international consultant Cressida Evans participate in this group, set up by GFC for CEO’s of NGOs around the world. Monthly meetings are aimed at strengthening organizations and providing opportunities to discuss institutional demands, evaluation instruments and the new political landscape around the world.

The group has enabled Viva a Vida to consider new methodologies for action and to play a fundamental role in motivating ourselves and others to carry on in the struggle to keep the institution’s mission alive.

Viva a Vida’s GlobalGiving fundraising goal

We would like to let you know that, thanks to your generous donations, we have almost hit our original fundraising goal of US$ 20,000.00! Our heartfelt thanks!

But the struggle continues and with the closing down of many funding pathways because of the pandemic, your support is needed now more than ever. Over the next few days you will therefore see that we have raised our goal to US$ 25,000.00 – onwards and upwards!