KIDS Support Groups in Brazil

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!