Mamae Margarida Project

Children’s Aid / Onda Solidaria and (ADS) the Association of Salesian Women have come together with the mission to help both children and teenagers from Pará, in Northern Brazil.

Thanks to the participation of friends and volunteers, we have succeeded in getting a plot of land, we have been able to clean it, to build a centre with leisure rooms and classrooms, and we have also carried out health campaigns.

An abandoned area has turned into an oasis of hope.

The project aims to create and maintain a Social Centre of Comprehensive Human Development. This is expected to be achieved through education, the practicing of sports, culture, health, citizenship and leisure. All these areas will be focused on the children, teenagers and adults of the community of Carlos Marighela- Ananindeua/Pará.

General Aim:

We aim to promote and develop the social skills and the physical and moral integrity of all those who benefit from this project. We believe that through this, we encourage as well the protection, promotion and control of human rights both, in childhood and adolescence.

Specific aims:

To create a space, which welcomes people and enables them to reflect on the necessities of the community.
To contribute to the awareness of the rights and duties of the citizens.
To promote the healthy use of free time by practicing sports, taking up hobbies, studying, etc.
To offer the community a centre where people can live together and receive a permanent education.
To promote social/educational activities, in order to prevent children from resorting to violence and using drugs.
To develop activities, which promote, protect and defend childhood (nursery of comprehensive attention).

Area (Background):

The situation of children and adolescents living on the outskirts of the big cities, and especially in the area where we work, is desperately asking for help. However, as it is usually the case, no one wants to take responsibility. The occupation of Carlos Marighela is an example of one of these chaotic realities, which demands the solidarity and involvement of the society as a whole. This project was born out of the initiative of the “Landless Movement”.

The occupation of Carlos Marighela took place on the 13th of July, 2001. This place is located in the metropolitan area of Belem, between the neighbourhood of Aguas Brancas (White Waters, in English) to the right, and Aurá to the left. To be more precise, it is located next to the BR-316, within the urban perimeter, in a town called Ananindeua. The access is through the BR-316, through the entry of Aurá and Aguas Brancas. The population is mainly made up of people who did not have their own home, or who had come from other states, mainly from Maranhao.

In this area of 83 hectares, we can see the total absence of infrastructure, of basic sewage systems, nurseries, health centres, employment opportunities, etc. Due to unemployment, domestic violence is a reality whose main victims are women and children. This place is a settlement made up of 3,886 families (data from July 2004), with an average of five people per family, i.e. some 19,500 people living in abject poverty.

The Children’s Pastoral serves monthly some 886 children between 0 and 6 years of age. Most of them were the children of young mothers who, in most cases, did not have the minimum required to take care of their children. The records show that there were around 372 people from 7 to 15 years of age (Marighela data base- MARIG.BDF).

Main Beneficiaries

The main beneficiaries of project Mae Margarida are the children and teenagers. We are trying to help them with their main needs: education, health, leisure and culture.
The Social Centre “Mamá Margarita”, with its infrastructure, also intends to assist women, in their condition of young people, wives, and mothers.

Currently, we are assisting a total number of 400 people, counting the programmes, which take place during the week and the weekend. Our aim is 1,200.

Human Resources:

Due to the multidimensional universe for our future projects, Mamae Margarida will be the point of contact for a great number of supportive people coming from different socio-economic, professional, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds.

Local Situation:

Rapid and disorganized growth of the big cities brings about a concentration of people, who come from the rural areas, and who do not have a permanent settlement and therefore live in abject poverty. The main problems that this phenomenon generates are, in the first place, unemployment and, consequently, a great number of people, both adults and youngsters, resort to theft, robbery, drug dealing and consumption, prostitution, sexual exploitation of children and teenagers, children labor and precocious begging.

In the face of this depressive panorama, the government has not yet been able to find suitable solutions. We are all responsible for the Common Good of our communities, and there is within the society a sensitivity capable of promoting non- government solutions to these problems: this is the role of the NGOs.

The sector called Services has not only expressed its sensitivity, but it is also far ahead of all Brazilians and even the government when it comes to developing efficient programs of support, to the defense of human rights, and to the development of creative educational programs, which encourage a significant change to this grim reality. This is precisely what’s happening in our education section called Aur á.

CHILDREN’S AID/ONDIÑA SOLIDARIA and the Association of Salesian Women are a pioneer presence in this place, carrying out a serious project, which is providing efficient solutions to a number of social problems, which affect many children and their families in the community of Aur á.

This project has proved successful from its very inception, benefiting approximately 350 children and their families per week.

Together we are making a difference!

For more information or if you are interested in taking part in this project, get in touch with us.

Please click here to view pictures of the Margarida projects