Child Protection Brazil Project #17783

KIDS Support Groups in Brazil

by International Blue Cross

Project Report | Jun 14, 2022
"This time helped me to heal a wound I had"

By Bianca | Project Assistant

"I'm Evelyn and I've been going to PEAL in Pomerode for a few years. One of the activities that take place here once a week is the KIDS Support Group. Last year we learned a lot about the topic sexual abuse. One of the stories was Tartanina. This story helped me a lot to understand and free myself from a weight I carried in my heart. I learned how to protect myself and how to help other girls protect themselves too. Another lesson that was marked is that there are secrets I shouldn't keep from my family and when something makes me feel bad I need to tell a trusted adult who can help me. This time helped me to heal a wound I had."

Stories are a great tool to talk about important, but sometimes difficult topics with children in a way they can comprehend. Sexual abuse is one of the topics adressed in the KIDS Support Groups. Other topics are for example identity and integration, emotions, social skills, family, saying no or alcohol and drug use.

Each meeting is dedicated to one of these topics. Every meeting starts with a greeting round where every child can say how their week was. As a teaching method we usually use emojis. Each child can pick an emoji to show how they feel about their week. After this greeting round there is always time to play with the kids, to build relationships and just spend time togehter. Then one of the topics gets adressed by the staff. After the input, most importantly probably, the kids get to apply the topic in order to internalize the message. We usually play music together, do manual work, draw something or play theater. This practical part is always a highlight, because the kids enjoy it a lot.

KIDS support groups are a safe place for vulnerable children. In the name of Evelyn and many other kids we thank you for making this possible! Thank you for everything you give.

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Feb 15, 2022
Raising Community Awareness and building new partnerships

By Bianca | Project Assistant

Closing Party of 2021 in Jaragua

After over two years of Covid-19 restrictions, finally most of the group activities were allowed to take place again. Therefore the two project coordinators, Julia and Rafael visited a lot of groups and taught new leaders how to start new Kids Support Groups in Brazil.

Kids Support Groups mostly aim to help children of alcoholics. Besides supporting the kids, it is also really important to raise community awareness about the consequenses of alcohol and other drugs. In order to raise awareness it is crucial to partner with different organisations. We are really excited to newly partner with churches all over Brazil. In January, we held the first online conference with the topic "Church and Drug Prevention" for different church leaders. We are convinced that it makes a huge difference if every person, every organisation and therefore also churches takes on their responsibility and learns how to stop alcohol and drug harm. Another way how the Kids Support Groups raise awareness, is by producing weekly radio sessions. The radio sessions are a great tool to reach the wider community and bring this important topic to the table.

Another crucial aspect about every project are finances. Since the Kids Support Groups are part of the Blue Cross Brazil, they took part in a fundraising activity from Blue Cross Brazil. They sold burgers to raise money for their projects. It was a great day, with lots of fun to cook and sell burgers. And besides raising money it was a great oppurtunity to explain to people the work of Blue Cross Brazil.

Since the Kids Support Groups depend on donations, we warmly encourage you to support us. Thank you so much for everything you give. You make a huge difference!

Selling burgers for Blue Cross Brazil

Kids Support Group in Timbo

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Oct 18, 2021
Continuing growth during the pandemic

By Bianca | Project Assistant

Due to increasing accessibility of vaccinations in Brazil, a large part of the population is now vaccinated. Despite this positive development, a lot of places in Brazil are still under restrictions such as the prohibition of meeting in groups. Due to these restrictions a lot of the Kids Support groups can still not meet in person. A lot of people are insecure since the covid-situation is really unstable. This also hindered some leaders to return to group activities. Nonetheless, the last three months have been amazing. We started three new kids support groups, carried out 30 group visits and three trainings for new leaders. Especially during this time of uncertainty it is more important then ever to keep up the work with kids. We try our best to keep growing as an organisation and reach more and more kids and continue to support them.

In July, we started a prevention program called “Pérola de Valor” (valuable pearl) in Santa Catarina. The goal of this program is the prevention of sexual abuse. Since children are really vulnerable, it is important to teach them how to act in order to protect themselves from being harmed. In an interactive session, the kids heard the story of “The Secret of Tartanine” which taught them the importance of taking care of their bodies. They played different games related to their bodies.

We are really happy to announce the opening of a new kids support group in Guaramirim and Charpeco, Santa Catarina. The groups started their first meetings in august and we are really thrilled to see how this group is going to develop and support vulnerable kids all around Santa Catarina.

Another success of the last couple of months, was the continuation of the Azulinho series. Our staff produced a second story of the comic, which got printed and will be read by a lot of kids from now on. Besides the comic, also a book got published by the Cruz Azul Brazil which is called “O de casa”. The book talks about the importance of visiting the families of the kids who attend to the Kids support groups.

It is really important to us, to keep up training new leaders, opening new groups but also invest ourselves further in already existing groups. We see how the lives of so many kids get changed and how kids get to grow into healthy teenagers. This is only possible by the support of generous givers. Thank you so much for donating to our project!

session about prevention of sexual abuse

session about fear

second Azulinho series

Links:

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