{"id":30300,"date":"2016-07-25T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2016-07-25T11:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=30300"},"modified":"2016-08-16T12:59:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-16T15:59:00","slug":"bandeirantes-ja-project-sets-example-for-grassroots-education-in-cesar-maia-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=30300","title":{"rendered":"Bandeirantes J\u00e1 Project Sets Example for Grassroots Education in C\u00e9sar Maia [IMAGES]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Located in Rio\u2019s West Zone<\/a>, around 7km west of the newly built Olympic Park, the community of C\u00e9sar Maia<\/a>\u00a0is a 22-year-old social housing complex that’s home to an incredible sociocultural project to provide quality education to the community’s children. Founded by resident\u00a0D\u00e9bora Vieira, Bandeirantes J\u00e1<\/a>\u00a0is a complementary schooling program for kids and youth between 3 and 21 years old. Bandeirantes J\u00e1 is\u00a0fully self-sustained and run by its founder and young teachers who used to be students of the project themselves. However with the need to move to a new location, they have launched a crowdfunding campaign<\/a> to raise funds and purchase a new building within the community.<\/p>\n

The project was initially created in 2009 by eight students of an entrepreneurship class, including D\u00e9bora Vieira, and began with various improvements throughout the community, such as creating a public playground and painting and clearing up\u00a0public spaces. <\/span><\/p>\n

Vieira says:\u00a0\u201cWe<\/span> wanted to show that there were good people here because when outsiders looked into this community, all they saw was crime<\/a>… We wanted to highlight<\/a> the human beings that live here, that there are\u00a0many educated people. People who want to succeed in life.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"D\u00e9bora<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The project then shifted towards a focus on education<\/a> and children. D\u00e9bora began giving free sex education classes at a local public school. She met student Beatriz, who gave lessons to younger kids in her backyard at the time, and\u00a0the idea of creating an \u201cescolinha<\/em>\u201d (a complementary school)\u00a0came about.<\/p>\n

Today, the project provides free education for up to 140 students. They have trained\u00a0around 20 former\u00a0students to be the teen\u00a0teachers and coordinators of the project. These students-turned-teachers wear red shirts. Another 22 students are currently training\u00a0to become future monitors who will\u00a0wear green shirts. The program thus teaches\u00a0students, trains its teachers, and prepares its coordinators, all from within its\u00a0ranks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Children in the project are also able to attend classes at Escola SESC<\/a>, a schooling project that offers multidisciplinary courses such as theater, gastronomy, and arts and crafts. <\/span><\/p>\n

Within the Bandeirantes J\u00e1 project, children receive classes in reading and writing, mathematics, Earth and life sciences, as well as cooking, hair-styling, and make-up classes. There are examples of students who\u00a0entered the project at 12 years of age with hardly any\u00a0literacy skills, and, one year later, are able to perform at their age group\u2019s academic level.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Classes<\/a><\/p>\n

Apart from the obvious academic help the schooling project provides to the kids, it has had obvious impacts on their personal development as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Student coordinator Berenice, 17, says: \u201cWhen I entered the project, I was a different person. I was very irritable and I wasn’t patient. What I loved more than anything was sleeping. I got to school and slept. I didn\u2019t think about anyone else, just me. But after, I saw that everything could change… With the children, I learned to laugh. They weren\u2019t afraid of me…. They started calling me ‘Tia’ [aunt in Portuguese]. They started to hug me, kiss me, miss me. So I felt that things could change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Other student monitors tell similar stories. Luis Leonardo, 14, speaks of his experience with Bandeirantes J\u00e1 as one that has truly changed his life. Describing himself as a party-goer and somewhat of a troublemaker, he says:\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>It changed my behavior, changed my path and changed my social life because I made many friends… and now I know what friendship means… Before, I was a boy with low self-esteem. When I entered the project and started doing this work, my self-esteem was raised.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Luis<\/a><\/p>\n

Gabriel, 17, says\u00a0the project’s made him more mature, less selfish, and taught him how to deal with responsibilities. When the\u00a0project started, Gabriel was one of the first students.\u00a0He is now entering his fourth year of teaching. <\/span><\/p>\n

The process the coordinators in the project go through is similar to the one every teacher around the world has to master with one big difference: age. When Gabriel started teaching, he was 13 and his students around 11 years old. <\/span>He\u00a0says: \u201cI got really nervous and the kids could feel this so they’d respond by causing\u00a0chaos. I was talking and they started laughing. I said ‘be quiet’ and they’d laugh even louder. They did not respect me… Days and weeks passed and the kids started calling me ‘tio’ [uncle in Portuguese]… I started enjoying it and today everybody respects me and that feels very good.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gabriel emphasizes\u00a0that the\u00a0time spent in the project is everybody\u2019s free time\u2013nobody is obliged\u00a0to be there, whether it be teachers or students. He affirms that the project has become a big part of\u00a0their lives<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gabriel<\/a><\/p>\n

Within C\u00e9sar Maia, this revolutionary idea has had a significant snowball effect: knowledge initially passed on to the young teachers is\u00a0then spread to younger students, who can then become future coordinators themselves when sufficient maturity is reached. Thanks to the project, an atmosphere of bottom-up development has grown, and C\u00e9sar Maia is better for it. This kind of grassroots education project, developed entirely from the inside-out, can grow further with support. It can also serve as a model for other communities with similar deficits in public education, particularly at a time when teachers in Rio are on strike<\/a> and students have occupied schools<\/a> to demand improvements. D\u00e9bora hopes to spread her idea and\u00a0is currently developing a detailed methodology which she hopes to communicate\u00a0to other educational initiatives.<\/p>\n

\"Kids<\/a><\/p>\n

The C\u00e9sar Maia community itself has benefited immensely from the project. When Bandeirantes J\u00e1\u00a0was founded seven years ago, the community had been abandoned by authorities for years. Street\u00a0lighting was not maintained, there were no public spaces, trash was not collected\u00a0and there was no public health facility. The housing complex\u00a0was built on a former landfill and gases from this waste are now trapped underground, putting the location at risk of explosion at any time. <\/span><\/p>\n

Bandeirantes J\u00e1 helped mobilize the community and as a result many of these issues have been resolved. Public lighting infrastructure is maintained. There is now a family clinic accessible for the residents. Public spaces have been built and organized. Thanks to education about how to deal with garbage\u00a0and its health risks, coordinators of the project successfully\u00a0campaigned\u00a0for more waste\u00a0receptacles\u00a0in their community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bandeirantes<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, however, Bandeirantes J\u00e1\u00a0finds itself in a difficult situation. The building they currently use is\u00a0a public building with\u00a0no functioning bathrooms and the area often gets flooded, bringing in garbage\u00a0and mosquitoes. Founder and director D\u00e9bora Vieira has found an alternate space on the main street of the complex, where 90% of the students live. In this new larger building, she has dreams of welcoming more students. She also wants to build a dormitory, for kids to use on a temporary basis when they face difficult situations at home. Vieira\u00a0is full of ideas on how to extend and improve the project. They are now\u00a0holding their first ever fundraising campaign, a\u00a0crowdfunding campaign<\/a>\u00a0through\u00a0September 1. The goal to raise US$5495 to purchase the new building. To learn more about the project and donate, visit the crowdfunding page here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Check out our photos of the program\u00a0(click here for Flickr album<\/a>):<\/h3>\n