From all the people that I have kept in touch with through adult life from back in school days, my friend Sarinha is the one that has by far the best job of them all. At least in my opinion.
She is the administrative director of a NGO in São Paulo, called Cidão Pró Mundo (Pro-World Citizen).
For them it all started in 1997, when the founder brought a foreign friend to visit a low-income community in the south west of the city. To his surprise, all the youngsters in the community got really exited to meet a foreigner and kept trying to communicate with him.
That’s when the idea to use English as a tool to promote equality emerged. Classes started to be given at the students residences up to 1999 when they got their own space. Today they have a partnership with Cambridge University Press and are using one of the most well established learning materials in the world.
But to say that English is all they teach would be really diminishing the great work being done. The kids who attend these classes don’t really have access to good schooling in general, and the volunteers have been striving to teach basics from other subjects while using English language in the classroom.
In the first part of the course, students learn how to talk about Brazil in English, to boost their self-esteem. Afterwards they are exposed to projects focused on work experience to feel confident about getting into the labor market.
Today they serve 8 communities, have 300 volunteers and over 700 students.
And as if all this wasn’t exiting enough, People of Change, a NGO that makes documentaries about organizations that strive for the betterment of their community through sustainable changes not just to honor them but also to encourage others to start similar work, just release a teaser on the documentary they did on Cidadão Pro-Mundo.
Watch with English Subtitles:
Want to help? Pró-Mundo is now raising funds to buy text books and other school supplies. With a small donation of R$60 (about USD $30) you can buy all the supplies a student will need for a whole year. To donate please e-mail faleconosco@cidadaopromundo.org.br
Liking Cidão Pró-Mundo Facebook Page also helps!
Congrats Sarinha, for all the hard work! You are for me a source of inspiration.
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