A NEW SCHOOL FOR THE FAVELA KIDS

On the 7^th July 2011 a new school for the favela kids was inaugurated in Criciuma, Brazil.

The main figure of the project is the Rogationist Father Vincenzo Lumetta, who has been working at the Catholic Mission “Bairro da Juventude” for 23 years (below you can find a short report he sent to us).

This school is a new starting point for the future of those kids who need not only education and food, but also love and confidence in the forthcoming days. Dear Father Vincenzo Lumetta, good luck for your job  and thank you for your precious commitment.

 

“The innumerable smiles of the children involved in our project Bairro da Juventude –Criciuma - Brazil thank the FONDAZIONE ZANETTI ONLUS for building its new middle school. Your own brick, dear Fondazione, has become a chance of life and of hope for many street children, undernourished children, illiterate children, abused children, sick children and invisible children. Love is like a snowflake, it melts and fades away on its own but many of them together become loads of love. Thank you!”

F. Vincenzo Lumetta- Rogationist Missionary

 

Picture: children at Bairro da Juventude Mission, Brazil. Copyright

 

 

REPORT ON THE NEW SCHOOL

Brazil: My name is Father Lumetta, I am a missionary priest of the Rogationist Order, I have worked in Criciuma, Santa Catarina, Brazil at  “Bairro da Juventude” for 23 years; the Mission hosts 1450 kids aged between 1 and 18 years on a half-board basis; they are given five meals, they can play, study and learn a job.

After a long work lasted 3 years and especially thanks to the financial help provided by the Fondazione Zanetti Onlus, we eventually completed the building of a 1300 square-meter primary and middle school complex.

The building extends along two floors and hosts 13 classrooms and the restrooms. The building of the school is part of a larger project which aims at restoring dignity of and offer a cultural environment to 640 students, of the primary and middle school.

The children at our Mission are poor and lack the primary needs; they come from different favelas spread around the whole region; their dwellings are hovels with no electricity. Their glances reflect sadness and violence. When they arrive at the Mission, they are starved for food and affection they are not given at home.

Our children are willing to learn but also to play and live free of troubles, as they are supposed at their age. Their school performances are conditioned by malnutrition; their biological age is not in line with their school age, given their learning difficulties.

We were lacking of suitable spaces to host them properly; the kids were complaining because when it rained, the water would enter all over. The drainage system was precarious and unhealthy; the bare-wire electrical system was unsafe and we had continuous power failures.

The children are now extremely happy to go to school and to join the activities. The current environment is brighter and healthier. Tidiness and cleanness make the children feel happier and light-hearted. They are enabled to take advantage of their own age as well as of their human and professional education.

Eradicating illiteracy is the main goal not only of Bairro da Juventude, but also of every society which wishes to help this social mission grow stronger and steadier. Our students do not have to walk for miles to come to school under the worst weather conditions any longer, since we have a new school-bus service. They come to school with more willingness of learning.

Life is easier; thanks to the constant commitment of our teachers, operators and volunteers the child feels integrated and more self-responsible. He is the real protagonist of every educative step.  The teachers really appreciate the new school as this new environment facilitates discipline, well-being and education.

The kids education and literacy represents a challenge for us to work more and more to promote the dignity and development of every single child.

If societies respected children’s dignity, it would be a better world.

Brazil, July 2011

 Father V.Lumetta – Rogationist Missionary