Child Protection Brazil Project #17783

KIDS Support Groups in Brazil

by International Blue Cross

Project Report | Jun 18, 2021
Training new leaders and building more partnerships

By Bianca | Project Assistant

Kids Support Group in Jaragua

Unfortunately the pandemic isn't over yet. This challenges the facilitaors of the Kids Support Groups to come up with new and creative ways to still support the kids in the communities of Brazil. Most of the meetings can still not be hold face-to-face. Nevertheless Júlia and Rafael, two facilitators of the Kids Support Groups, managed to organize some online meetings and face-to-face activities over the last three months. They were quite active visiting groups all over Brazil. In addition to meeting existing groups they also focused on training new leaders and building new partnerships.

Last month, they took a trip to two states in the north east of Brazil, where they trained new leaders, which now start a new Kids Support Group. The newly formed partnership aims to support more and more kids all over Brazil.

Further they visited groups in Doutor Pedrinho, Pomerode, Jaraguá do Sul, Fraiburgo and Indaial in Santa Catarina and Campo Maior in Piauí. The topic of one of the meetings was "you are special". This is a really important topic since a lot of kids don't have a good self-esteem. Another important topic are healthy boarders. The kids learned how to "say no" in situations where they are in danger of experiencing abuse. By playing theatre, they were able to practice saying no in different settings.

In May and June the facilitators trained new leaders in multi-day sessions in Agrolândia (Santa Catarina), Nova Santa Rosa (Paraná), Teresina (Piauí) and Sobral (Ceara). In order to also train leaders from further places, they recorded trainings for new leaders.

Another achievement of the last couple of months was the finalization of the first story of the Azulinho series (You can see the comic in the picture below). We are super happy to start reading these comics with the kids. They are a great tool to cover important topics in a fun way.

If you want to support our work in Brazil, we would warmly welcome your donation. Thank you so much for making a difference in the lives of many vulnerable kids!

Kids Support Group in Pomerode

Training for new leaders in Agrolandia

The Azulinho series

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Feb 25, 2021
New ways to support vulnerable kids

By Bianca | Project Assistant

Christmas Event

Unfortunately the activities of all 36 Kids Support Groups in Brazil are still suspended due to Covid-19. Nevertheless they still carried out adjusted activities to continue their work. Since Brazil is a really large country, it is important to accompany the leaders of the different cities to keep the groups going and exchange knowledge and resources. Since visits weren’t possible, they held online meetings to exchange how they keep in touch with children of their groups. Further they planed new groups for 2021. To start new groups they also trained new leaders. These online trainings for new leaders took place in September, October and November. During ten-hours sessions the new leaders got informations about the following topics:

1) Profile of children and adolescents living with drug addicts

2) The approach to the child/teenager

3) Kids Support Groups

4) Teen Support Groups

5) Prevention as care and folloow-up

6) Phases of the child/teenager development

Leaders usually use a handbook, which was published some years ago to support them at their work. In 2020 they started the elaboration of comics for prevention. These comics are used during activities and get distributed to kids. Working with comics is a way to prevent kids from drug and alcohol use in a child-friendly way. Since the kids really liked the comics, our staff caries on developping new comics in 2021. You can see one page of these comics below.

Most leaders visited the families face-to-face or sent them messages to regularly check on them. Two Kids Support Groups held online meetings with the kids during the pandemic. These groups are located in Jaraguá and Pomerode and they talked to the kids about responsibility, life skills and the use of social media and technology.

One of the activities which could take place, was the distribution of Christmas presents for kids of the Support Group in Blumenau. Our staff distributed them to the families together with some kids. They even played some music while visiting the families to surprise them. Another highlight was the Keep Calm prevention camp, which was held online. The event was for teenagers who usually participated at the camp.

All in all, we are really glad to have different possibilites to support the kids in such a difficult time. Every group has found a way to continue reaching out to vulnerable kids all over Brazil. If you like to support our work, we would warmly welcome your support by donating to this project. Thank you for everything you give!

Distribution of Christmas gifts

Keep calm prevention event

Leader's Training

Comic

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Oct 28, 2020
Shaping the world of tomorrow

By Bianca | Project Assistant

Online meeting for Kids

We all know that the children of today are the future of tomorrow. How we educate them, how we see and treat them and how we act around them, is going to shape the world of tomorrow. But not every child has the privilege to grow up in a healthy environment. In Southern Brazil alcohol abuse is a significant issue for a lot of parents. Children of alcoholics suffer from the consequences of being brought up upon alcohol. Facing social exclusion, developing mental illness or even becoming alcoholics themselves is a real threat to their future. The KIDS Support Groups in Brazil committed themselves to tackle this problem.

It is amazing to see how children attending the Support Groups start to change. Rubia Nehls, coordinator of the Kids Support Groups, talks about her experience with these kids. “Coming into the program the kids were really shy, had a low self-esteem and didn’t talk much, but after a couple of weeks, they opened up, started to talk and to play”. “But most importantly”, Rubia says, “they started to smile again”. You can tell they have changed, once you see the contagious joy in their face.

Due to Covid-19 the KIDS Support Groups adapted some of the meetings to online meetings. On the 3^rd of September The Kids Support Group Jaraguá do Sul organized an online meeting to talk about the danger of spending too much time watching TV and gaming. It was a great opportunity to bond with the kids, listen to their stories and support them.

The kids were not the only ones connecting via the Internet. On the 3^rd of October there was an online conference for staff workers of the KIDS Support Groups and volunteers who start a new program in Paulista, Pernambuco. It was great to hear about the major engagement for the new KIDS support group!

This is only possible by your generous support – Thank you so much for investing into the future of tomorrow.

Online conference for staff workers

Links:

Read more about Blue Cross Brazil

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