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is sending two educational and systemic
psychotherapists - and
from London for a working visit during 4 to 19
march
2006 to .
It is a project for disadvantaged children located
in Villa Leopoldina in São Paulo.
This project aims to provide a safe place where
the children can be part of the society in their
own way and working through their own difficulties
using their great vitality and joy.
During their visit they will be working with the
children and staff using their skills and exchange
experiences. The program will also include visits
to other projects: '',
''.
It will also act as seminars: 's
group on bereavement at the University of Sao
Paulo, psychologists and health professionals
at .
We are two systemic
family therapists working with children and were
thrilled to be invited, through Flame, to visit
a variety of projects in Sao Paulo.
Slobodanka Popovic trained originally as a speech
therapist and was working in Bosnia. She is now
part of the BEST (Behavioural and Educational
Support
Team) linked to the Child and Adolescent Mental
Health Service in Greenwich. Patsy Way has a background
in education and currently works in the Candle
Project, a bereavement counselling service for
children based in St Christopher’s Hospice.
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We received a hugely warm welcome from our host,
Eliza Bracher and her family and spent the main
part of our time there with the children and staff
in Acaia. Together with an extraordinarily dynamic
team of committed professionals, Eliza is realising
a dream of allowing children and young people
from the local “favela” and “
“to discover different possibilities in
relating to each other and the world around them
using an array of creative modes of expression.
As outsiders working with children from the so-called
developed world, one is struck by the sheer energy
and creativity of these children as they move
between carpentry, craftwork, etching, capoeira,
dance, cookery, reading, music, gardening and
much more,
learning confidence and an inner assurance from
each other and the rhythms and disciplines of
the activity.
This is not an alternative to school and the apparent
ease with which the day unfolds at Acaia belies
the enormous strength of the staff team. In a
typical day we might be joining a capoeira class,
wading ankle deep in flood water as we visited
families in the favela (a no-go area for the police
but the Acaia team are trusted here) and then
joining in a child protection case discussion
over coffee before talking to an audience of interested
professionals in the evening, exchanging ideas
on professional practice.
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Through Flame and Acaia we were privileged to
meet a variety of professionals engaged in work
connected to our own in the UK. Dr Ricardo took
us for a
tour of the area served by his government health
centre and we saw favelas being constructed
by displaced families before our eyes. Meeting
with his multiprofessional team and others working
in the field allowed an exchange of experience
in health-related areas.
Through international contacts in the hospice
movement, a further day was spent with Dr Joao
Paulo Solano who had arranged for us to make
a presentation to the palliative care team at
USP,
the University of Sao Paulo. This was followed
by a visit to Dr Solano’s team in the
Federal University who, on very limited resources,
are hoping to open the first hospice in Sao
Paulo. As with many projects we visited we were
humbled to see volunteers and professionals
using their own time and resources to create
public services for the community.
We were similarly fortunate to meet the director
and social workers involved in ACTC, a beautiful
project supporting families when one of their
children is undergoing heart surgery. Families
with little or no resources cross hundreds of
miles for life-saving surgery in the hospital
next door and used to resort to begging to support
themselves and their children. ACTC provides
a hostel, support and information and the company
of others on a similar journey for families
in such a time of crisis. An enthralling afternoon
was spent in case discussion.
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In total contrast we enjoyed a tremendous performance
from the “Meninos de Morumbi” a
now well known group who have toured the UK
several times through Flame with their life
enhancing displays of singing, dancing and drumming.
The programme is led by Flavio Pimenta who took
time to explain his model of working that offers
huge numbers of young
people in Sao Paulo opportunities for developing
skills in music and many other areas to a very
high level.
Towards the end of our visit
Denise Amaral introduced us to a second year
teaching group in her family therapy training
institute and then to a project for street children
in the centre of Sao Paulo - Quixote Project
- that she is involved in.
After such an experience in which
we found ourselves welcomed, stimulated and
challenged so richly, imagine our horror in
seeing the streets of Sao Paulo in uproar on
our television screens.
We have been privileged to be
invited into the lives and work of a range of
people who offer enormous amounts of time, energy
and creativity in a belief and hope that life
can be better for people in Sao Paulo, especially
those with so few material resources.
We are enormously grateful to
Flame fo this experience and hope in the future
to welcome
others from Sao Paulo and reciprocate a little
of the joy and hospitality we received. |
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