KIDS Support Groups in Brazil

“When will we meet again?” asked Eduardo, a young boy who participated in his first KIDS Group meeting in Southern Brazil. According to Silvia dos Santos, the lead social worker, the children are hesitant at first and not willing to talk about their problems in the group however after initiating some of the activities specifically designed to work with youth, they begin to open up and talk about the feelings of shame, anger and embarrassment they feel because of their parents addiction. So many boys like Eduardo lack the presence of a father figure in their life, someone they can look up to and trust and follow by good example.

We are excited to report that the establishment of KIDS Support groups in Brazil is expanding, thanks to the donations collected from foundations in Switzerland and your generous contributions. We are also pleaseed to report that this project was chosen as the annual club charity for the American Women’s Club of Bern, which continues to raise funds for the groups at its regular fundraising activities.

Currently the main focus of the team in Southern Brazil is training of new team leaders, who can then form new groups for the care of children and their families. In order to ensure that the groups run smoothly and the leaders have the necessary tools to work with the children, Blue Cross Brazil has also developed a new training manual with practical exercises/examples to be used by the leaders in the daily group activities.

Due to the success of the newly created groups, the project coordinator has begun presenting the idea for the KIDS groups at various seminars and conferences, such as the National Congress of Sunday School Teachers, to sensitize the community on the requirements of working with children of alcohol and drug-dependent parents.

By the end of 2015, we expect to have trained 110 new group leaders, opened 22 new support groups in Southern Brazil.