Feed a Hungry Child in Brazil Today

Dear Supporters,

It’s been a busy term at the Educandário Creche Comunitária Sonho da Vovó Clara in Mata Escura, on the outskirts of the city of Salvador. In May we celebrated Mother’s Day with the children – we invited all our mums, dads and caregivers to attend the school for a special celebration with a song learned and performed by the children and lots of dancing afterwards. We also took the opportunity to show off all the wonderful work our students have been doing in the classroom – it is really important that we engage the local community in the work we are doing and ensure that we have parents support and contribution in the education of their children. There were lots of very proud faces – parents and kids alike – as we showed off some lovely pieces of work across all subjects.

In June each year Brazil celebrates São João – the annual celebration of the countryside and rural traditions. As many of our families moved to Salvador from the countryside seeking work in the big city this is always a poignant festival. Teacher Andrea arranged a party and helped the children to put together traditional outfits for the day. In the classroom we undertook projects relating to the differences between town and countryside life, did some beautiful countryside themed artwork and learnt some traditional songs and poetry.

There is always a short holiday for São João as traditionally Bahians use this period to visit family in the countryside. Students returned to school from this break in early July. As usual some families decided to remain in the countryside after the festive period and a number of new children also arrived at the school for the first time. This is a pattern we witness every year; unfortunately the promise of regular work in the city does not become a reality for most migrants and with the opportunity to visit home each year some decide to stay. We were pleased to see a net increase of 7 students overall.

The next big event on the calendar will be the Day of the Child in early October, this annual festival is marked by a party in the city park organised by the local council for all public schools. This is always a source of big excitement for our students – for most it will be one of only 2 days out each year (along with our annual Christmas park trip) and the kids are already asking for a daily countdown when they arrive for lessons.

Andrea, our school teacher, continues her success in her teacher training course at the local evening college. She has just passed to the advanced stage of her course and is about to begin a new semester at college. The students benefit every day from the new concepts and techniques she is learning, and she passes these on to our team of teaching assistants.  

Thank you for your support, which makes our work possible.

Grandma Clara's, Brazil 

Dear Supporters,

At the school in Mata Escura, on the outskirts of the city of Salvador, North-East Brazil, students have been marking the start of the World Cup Football Tournament, which always causes a great deal of excitement. Brazil’s proud football heritage and the passion football invokes mean that the World Cup really can’t be avoided!

So, Andrea, our school teacher has been ingeniously working the theme into her lessons. Students have completed projects on the different countries taking part in the event and the host nation of Russia – improving their understanding of world geography and different languages and customs. Our younger students have been designing football strips and completing bios and self portraits for a new poster for our entry hall – ‘Nossa Seleção’ – or our ‘World Cup Selection’ – a great piece of writing, composition and art practice for our students who have presented their class in the form of a football team sheet, with bios of players, including their favourite animals, colours, subjects and physical characteristics.

Andrea is also planning a fun football tournament in the school to mark the event and hoping to talk some of the parents into getting involved. Since the school’s inception we have always been working hard to try and encourage parental involvement – support at home is so vital for our children’s educational success.

We have also marked the São João festival. São João (St. John) is a festival that takes place every year in Brazil. The dates are marked with parties, traditional clothing, dances and traditional foods. The idea of São João is to celebrate the harvest and the country way of life. It is an ideal opportunity to teach our students about Brazil’s rich history and geography and talk about the differences between life in the country and the city – many of students started life in the countryside and moved with their families to the city of Salvador in search of work. Once the party had kicked off the students began dancing to the traditional forro music and looked wonderfully cute in the country style outfits they had put together. There was also a delicious feast of party foods put together by Sonia, our cook. Our students look forward to the São João party for months in advance and it is always a fantastic day.

Thank you for your continued support, we are always so grateful!

Much Love, 

Salvador, Brazil