The Hope; Children and Families

               My name is Tine Haukås-Eide Andreassen Lopes. I am a 26 year old girl from Bergen, Norway. I did what many dream of doing; travel and work to help others. I started the project Hope, Children and Families, and I hope that you want to join us to help some of those in need.

               On the 24th of November 2003 the project ”The Hope, Children and Families” opened its doors. I had for some time worked on which families who needed help most urgent and I had hired some people to work with me. I could give the notice to twelve children and their families and together with one teacher, one nanny and a woman to cook, we started the adventure. Today we have 35 childre, five employees, and we have started other activities and are helping several families.

               The children at the daycarecenter are at the age of 2-12 years old. They all live with their families or relatives nearby the center. We open at 0700am. At 0730 hs they eat breakfast, and 0815 they read stories from the bible, discuss one subject talk about how it affects their daily lives. About 0830 the teacher starts teaching, helping them with their homework, problems they have at school, tests, etc. She teaches varios groups until 1100hs, when it is time for lunch. In Brazil the have two hot meals a day, the first one at about midday. 1200 the children who studies at the local school in the morning arrives. They play for a while before its time for homework and other activities. 1230 we follow the children who studies in the afternoon to school. At 0230 pm there is a third meal for the children where they eat bread, hot dog, cake etc. At 0430 pm. the children help cleaning up and put everything in its place. At 0500pm the parents pick up their children and the staff goes home to rest and prepare for the next day.

In addition to help the children with their homework and promblems they have at school, we have various activities for the children. As soon as they knows how to read and write, we start teaching them English. In Brazil there are very few people who speaks englih, so if the children can learn to speak and write it, their chances of getiing a job is much higher. We have a volountaire how teachers the children to play the gitar twice a week, an other voluntaire who gives lessons in capoeira, one who teaches manicure and one who comes to cut their hair. We hope to be able to offer the children and their families various activities in the future.

               One of the requirements for the families, is that the children  participates at the local school. The school here in Brazil is compulsory, but many children has to work or look after their younger brothers and sisters and do not have the time to study.

               In addition to the daycarecenter I try to help the families in their home. If one or more of the children have to work to be able to sustain the family, we  try to help with food, clothes and other things they need soo that the children can go back to school. Many of the women has not been able to work because they have to stay at home to look after the children. When their children have started at the center, some of the mothers has been able to look for a job. With some of the families it is important to talk with the parents about the importance of education and that the children has someone to follow them up etc.

            In the process of including the parents we have started to give lessons in reading and  writing. Many of them never had the opportunity to go to school,  but are now given a chance to learn to read and write. This will help them when they are looking for work, but also to be able to follow up their children at school. The quality of life and their self-respect will also increase. I also give English lessons to children and adults at night.

How it started.

             In the March 2001 I went to Brazil on holliday. After visiting various projects and gettint to know some of the children, some at the projects, others living on the streets, I decided that I had to do something. I went back to Norway to finish my degree in economy and administration. Then I went back to Brazil and worked as a voluntaire at the orphanage, Abrac for a year. 

             While working at Abrac I experienced a lot. This helped me when I decided to start my own project. There was a lot to think about: Who was I going to help? In what area? Did I want to start an orphanage? Daycarecenter? Did  I want to work with the children who was living on the streets? The possibilities were many, but I had to be a reaslist. I had to see my limits and start with a project I knew I could handle.

I decided to by a place in a city called Taubate, which is a two hours drive from the city Sao Paulo towards Rio de Janeiro.

What is the idea behind the project?

              While I worked at Abrac, we had kids coming in from the street to live with us. Others came from families who were not able to take care of their kids any more for different reasons. I saw how different these kids were, how different they behaved, how they adapted and how they developed. Those who had lived on the streets had not been used to limits and rules. They were used to taking care of them selves, and most of them had used drugs, been raped, and been prostitutes. Very young children sell their body to get money to by food or drugs. It is tough seeing how only a short time on the streets came change someone for life, and how it makes it difficult for a child to return to a ”normal” life. The children which came directly from their families, and never had lived on the streets, also had some terrible stories to tell. But adapting to the life at the orphanage, seemed  to be a lot easier for them.

Starting my own project, I wanted to help the children before they ended up on the streets. Helping the families in their home, the chances to succeed is greater. In this area, there is a lot of problems with drugs, alcohol, violence and unemployment. Problems which all relate to one another. Many of the children do not have anything to do in their sparetime, so many of them are just hanging out on the streets. They end up learning about drugs and other stuff which is bad for them. This is what we want to avoid. Giving them something to do, helping them with their homework and giving them a hope for the future, we hope they will stay with their families until they are adults. We want to give them an alternative to the streets.

The future.

               Today we have 46 children at the center. We have a limited number of children so that we are able to take better care of each one of them. All togheter with these children, other families I help and the classes  at night, the project helps about 100 people. In the future we hope that this number will rise and that we will be able to give various courses to the children and adults.

To be able to help more people, we will need more people working with us, more classrooms etc. and more voluntaires working helping us