Learning outdoors for children of the favelas

Last year, SINAL began a partnership with the British Council through its Active Citizens program, a methodology designed to train young community leaders to approach subjects of identity, culture, dialogue and community, to empower them to take action improving their own communities. Since the last few months, we have received groups of passionate young leaders from different neighborhoods of the greater Baixada Fluminense area (the urban sprawl of Rio de Janeiro), which are characterized by precarious infrastructure, low-income and insecurity.

 Through the trainings, the youths designed their own projects which will have begun to be implemented and will continue in the next months with our accompaniment. Some of the projects are:

            Building a rain catching system for the local school to use in its organic garden beds project, (another one of our community projects). The kids will also build an exact scaled replica as the project moves along, as a special project in their Math class.

            Installing a series of recycling “eco-points” in the neighborhood of Santo Antonio, characterized by having one of the lowest waste-treatment infrastructures.

            The intervention of a garden in a local plaza, where a community event was held with capoeira and recycled art workshops for children. The goal was to clean an area that was full of garbage and was instead planted with crotolaria, a plant that attracts the dragonflies that eat mosquitoes that carry dengue fever.

 We will upload more photos of the projects as they unfold, for now, here are some of the photos from the project crotolaria!

 Thank you to all donors who helped us achieve this. It has truly been a journey seeing these kids grow more empowered, confident and responsible!