Fe y Alegria in Brazil

The founding of Fe y Alegria in Brazil in 1980 came as an initiative of Fr Jose Maria in colabotaion with the Jesuit Provinces of the country. By 1984 the movement was active in the states of Mato Gross, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Parana, mainly through programs which provides service to the needs of small children, and organized in collaboration with movements in the local communities. In 1986 support was obtained from an association of rural and urban workers in Parana; subsequently in various regions attention was given to the problem of street children. Then in the following years, the service was extended to children and adolescents of school age in non-formal education projects and in youth centers, in the regions of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Parana.

Fe y Alegria Brazil is presently expanding its work with the youth population, seeking to improve the quality of formal and non-formal education by means of teacher training, direct educational programs and active participation in the defense of the rights of children and adolescents. Fe y Alegria Brazil sees education as a means towards human and political development which permits its beneficiaries a genuine participation in which they can exercise their citizenship in order to transform society.

Lines of action

Education: running of programs which attend children from zero to six years of age in day-care centers and pre-schools, and older children in primary schools and youth centers.
Defense of rights: active participation in CONANDA, the National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents, and various defense councils and forums at state and city level.
Community development: promotion of rural cooperative projects, health care, women’s leadership groups in neighborhood community associations, and other efforts that fortify and stimulate community development and the raising of living standards.
Teacher training: attempts to respond to the growing need for improving the quality of attention given to children in the day-care centers and the community pre-schools. Criteria of quality have been set up in cooperation with universities, research centers, ministries of education, NGOs and professionals from different areas.
Communication: among the various projects stands out the radio program “Wagon of Inventions – Citizenship on the airwaves”, winner of the Children’s Prize ’95 (Abrinq Foundation) as the best children’s program, now adapted to television. Collaboration with research institutes, various publications and the Brazilian Information and Documentation Network for Childhood and Adolescence (REBEDIA). Achievements

Our most notable achievements have been: helping street children and street youth,
provide orientation to educational centers and projects in the area of teacher training, direct attention in child-care centers, establishment of community libraries, formation of cultural agents, pedagogical publications, professional training for young people, basic education for grades one to eight. Fe y Alegria also give orintation to communities lacking basic structures and helped them to set up systematic community programs for children and adolescents, which provide school equivalency programs, professional training and formation for teachers and administrative personnel.
For Fe y Alegira, it is important to mention also, the public recognition of its work, revealed for the received prizes - "Prize Betinho de Cidadania" in 1999 "Efficient" in 1998, Child Price of Foundation ABRINQ in 1995 and Prize of "Right Human" of the Ministry of Justice - and for its consecutive election for. 4º management of the CONANDA - National Advice of Defense of the Rights of the Child and the Adolescent. Goals for the coming years

As the basis of our Strategic Plan Fe Y Alegria is implementing two key activities: a) strengthening the institutional activity by way of quality education projects and b) creating the Department of Institutional Cooperation with the aim of planning and developing actions which broaden its reach and reinforce its institutional sustainability.

Fe y Alegria is continuing the process of systematizing with emphasis on improving our services through professional training of the team of state coordinators, educational consultors and educators; and by working in the development and negotiation of projects in order to obtain funds. This latter activity means increasing and diversifying the financing sources and involving local organizations, individuals and private companies in the following activities:

Identification, definition and sending of projects to international financing agencies;
Identification of national donors: companies, foundations, public agencies, universities, etc;
Consolidation of “The Company of Childhood”, a program for obtaining human and financial resources, through education and motivation of civil society in general and of the people served directly by Jesuit schools in particular,
We seek to promote activities of institutional development such as the following:

Conducting an impact evaluation, with the object of evaluating the impact of our educational services, beginning with the activity of teacher training.
Creating an institutional maintenance fund for the sustainability of institutional post-project activities, with a value of 10% of the annual budget assigned to the projects.
Consolidating the process of institutional development by training of the promoters of Fe y Alegria and by finishing the process of systematizing our educational practices.