Fundação SEMEAR serves the poor in Brazil. It offers children and young adults a range of programmes to help them build self-esteem, learn new skills and deter them from falling victim to violence, drug trafficking or child labour.  Fundação SEMEAR built Centro de Vivência Redentora (CVR) to give it a space to serve socially vulnerable children and teenagers from favela Kephas. CVR is located in Vila Diehl.

 

Vila Diehl has a high rate of drug-related issues and many young people in this area fall into drug trafficking. Fundação SEMEAR hopes to change this community by building up its next generation. They plan to do this through offering a range of activities such as:

• Dance classes (ballet and street dance)
• Music classes (guitar and singing)
• Judo classes
• Drama classes
• Computer classes
• Social-environmental classes
• Citizenship classes
• Arts and crafts classes
• Book´s Club

 

These classes are not only fun and teach the students new skills but also allow them to develop confidence, self-esteem, responsibility and socialization. CVR also encourages the children to put on performances that showcase their new-found dance, music and judo skills. They give performances to their local and surrounding communities.

 

Last year, CVR was able to positively impact Vila Diehl with 180 children and teenagers attending their classes. CVR also offers free check-ups and they were able to provide 48 children with medical assistance and give clinical exams to 22 children. Overall, 1690 members of Vila Diehl’s community participated in CVR’s events.

 

We believe this community can break away from the high level of drug trafficking, violence and child labour and create opportunities for productive work for the next generation.

 

The Project

CVR needs help to renovate its existing multimedia room.

The photos above show the current state of the multimedia room. Even though the equipment is slow and outdated, CVR, thanks to the dedication of its employees, manages to run a professional training course and a Curriculum Vitae workshop to help teenagers find their first job. Their professional training course teaches students administrative routines, computer skills and a professional attitude. Students also get an opportunity to do a traineeship at a company associated with Fundação SEMEAR. Last year in spite of the crisis in Brazil and high unemployment, 24 of the students who undertook the professional training course were able to secure their first formal job. Since the program started in 2010, 350 teenagers have completed this course.

 

ORFL helped to renovate the multi-media room and make it into a dynamic common space by introducing the following:

• Renovation of the flooring and lighting
• Furniture
• 14 computers, Desktop and a projection screen
• A qualified instructor for the classes
• Technical assistance for the equipment

 

Theses photos show the new multi-media room. The new multi-media room will continue to be used to provide professional training courses and it will also be used as part of the extra-curricular classes. Integrating computer use into the extra-curricular classes will give the students a fun and creative way to interact with computers. For example, students will be able to learn how to film their dance or music classes, edit the film using computer software and display their edited films on screen. They will also be able to search the internet for similar shows and discuss how to improve their performance. At ORFL we also hope this multi-media room will be used to teach children and adolescences coding.

Finally, we hope this multi-media room brings a lot of joy and education to the children, adolescence and teachers at CVR.