Instituto Acaia in Sao Paulo is a remarquable
school. It totally finances itself from a range
of sources and partners, taking 120 of the most
deprived 6 – 18 year olds in the Leopoldina
district, virtually all dwellers in nearby favellas,
who, at any moment may be dispossessed of their
homes. In October 2007 4 students and 4 staff
from the privately financed, Instituto Acaia,
visited London. They were sponsored by the London
based, Friends of Latin American Expression,
who found a partner school, Queens Park Community
School in Brent and the nearby London Print
Studio, as the base for an innovative art project.
The Acaia teachers and students taught QPCS
GCSE and A level students wood block engraving
skills, which contributed significantly to QPCS
students gaining improved exam results. Indeed
in the summer 2008 GCSE 5 QPCS GCSE students
were in the top 10 in the Edexel GCSE.
In April 2008, QPCS Deputy Head, Barrie Birch
visited Acaia and a proposed partnership project
was born; to bring a media training course to
Acaia and to train a film crew of selected secondary
age students. 2 Acaia 18 year olds would then
be chosen and funded to have a 6 months minimum
stay in London, to work at a media, TV or film
business to gain experience, whilst also taking
an accredited qualification, which in turn would
assist the students in going on to university
and media employment.
Acaia acts as a supplementary school to the
nearby state run school. As they are not state
controlled they are able adopt an innovative
approach free from the constraints of bureaucracy.
The staff are an incredible, dedicated team.
Primary children attend the morning session
and secondary age children the afternoon session.
Many stay on for the evening programme aimed
at preparing students for university. All students
freely choose the subjects they work on. The
nearby favellas, from which virtually all of
the 120 students come are notorious no go areas
policed by gangs and drug barons, where a life
drugs, crime, prostitution and violence are
endemic.
Acaia as set itself up as a force for positive
change. At the school, for each of the 3 sessions,
a nutritious free meal is provided. It is the
only meal most of the kids will eat that day.
Shower facilities are provided – a luxury
after having to wash from a buckets in often
dodgy water at home. Over 7 years the staff
have slowly built up the trust of the local
favella dwellers. Acaia have recently opened
a hut for education inside Nove favella, providing
classes, a meeting place and primary health
care all from fund Acaia raises itself.
Principal, Elisa Bracher (Lico) is the driving
force of Acaia. The school has been built where
a former abattoir stood, next to the art studio
of Elisa. Elisa is a very interesting woman.
An artist specialising in huge granite and wooded
structures, an engraver and more recently a
photographer. Last week she opened an exhibition
of her favella photographs and also her photographs
and film from a project where she journeyed
into the north towards Amazonia, to trace the
relatives of some of the Acaia parents, who
had lost all contact with their relatives as
they drifted to Sao Paulo in search of work
and improved lives.
Elisa is also a social activist. Challenging
the Sao Paulo authorities, she has gained some
improvement in the favellas such as the installation
of a sewage system. She is campaigning for land
next to the school, left derelict by property
speculators, to be compulsorily purchased for
homes for the favella dwellers.
In short Acaia is a beacon of hope in this
part of Sao Paulo, in a sea of despair. In this
compact district of Sao Paulo around the CEASG
fruit and vegetable market is played out a real
life drama. This area is a microcosm of the
problems of the urban poor of South America.
We will be visiting Instituto Acaia from 16th
February to 15th March . Bob Walters of Media
inc and Barrie Birch are taking a media training
course to Instituto Acaia in Leopoldina district
of Sao Paulo. This involves a selected group
of 12 secondary school age youngsters who will
learn storyboard a project, to operate a professional
camera (Sony Z1), record sound with radio mikes
and boom, direct and edit using Adobe Premiere,
to produce a finished, broadcast quality programme.
It is proposed that 2 of the 12 film crew students
would be selected to travel to UK for 6thy months
at least to have a media-bases internship to
gain experience, whist at the same time undertaking
further training, hopefully leading to a bona
fide professional qualification, as a major
step towards a higher education place and a
career in the media. These selected two students
will be 18 year old school leavers.
The Sao Paulo part of the project is now confirmed.
In UK, the Friends of Latin American Expression
(FLAME) have raised funds to take Bob Walters
and Barrie Birch to Brazil for the project.
Firstly we would like to make a proposal for
a UK TV company to make a DOCUMENTARY programme
about the story of the Acaia kids and their
quest to go from a Sao Paulo favella to a dream
career in the media. The hope is that, upon
returning to Brazil, their success inspires
and encourages other favela youngsters to reach
for their dreams and break the cycle of poverty,
crime, drugs, prostitution, violence and hopelessness.
What do we want? To enable the TV programme
about the Acaia project to go ahead we would
need seed money to pay for a 3rd member of the
team, Natalie Barrass, who is an experienced
media trainer, has worked on the Creative Partnerships
film crew project with Bob at Queens Park Community
School. She has also presented the Radio 4 programme
Go4iT. Natalie would be the presenter of this
TV programme, working with the young Acaia people,
whilst also helping to film the documentary.
She would also assist in the teaching of the
media skills.
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15 days
at £250 per day for Natalie’s
fee |
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Cost of
accommodation |
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Return
air fare, London – Sao Paulo |
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Hiring
of camera kit |
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Stock |
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This seed funding gives you 3 weeks intensive
filming in Sao Paulo at Acaia and the nearby
Nove favela attached to the CEASG fruit and
vegetable market, a twilight zone area of change
and a microcosm of issues affecting the poor
and dispossessed in Brazil. These people, this
district and their stories give a very human
angle to struggles and dilemmas facing youngsters
in Sao Paulo. We hope it will be a story with
a happy ending that sees these young people
move their lives forward. It is also a story
of the devotion and support given to these kids
by the wonderful staff at Acaia School.
Instituto Acaia has worked for 7 years in this
challenging area. They have painstakingly won
the trust of the local favela dwellers and as
a result have unprecedented access to this favela
and the people who live there. The production
team will therefore be working on the inside
of the favelas and have access to people, places
and human stories as a result of this exclusive
partnership.
Our work with Acaia students and staff in
London last October and Barrie’s April
visit to Sao Paulo have laid the foundations
of good, trusting relations and the hope of
a sustainable relationship for some time to
come. The Acaia visitors to London already had
their eyes opened to new possibilities. These
students form the core of the 12 who, together
with key staff, will be the subjects of the
film.
partners
in UK can be involved by providing a minimum
6 month internship in a media company to give
these 2 students a high quality work placement
to “hot house” their skills and
experience. Students will have developed their
English speaking skills over 2 years and would
benefit from developing the technical aspects
of their English, whilst having a range of real
working experiences hopefully in a variety of
media contexts. This “gap year”
experience will be of tremendous value in helping
them to gain entry into university and also
in applying for any scholarships to support
their studies. We would hope that, whilst the
internship was running, the internees could
take an appropriate course or receive training
leading to an accredited qualification. This
could involve in-house training or training
and qualifications from a media training school
or institute of Higher Education.
I hope you will see that this is a very worthy
project. It is also meant to be a sustainable
project that will run annually. Partners are
already on board: FLAME, Carol Lutz (Brazilian
researcher for the film, City of The Dead),
writer Bia Bracher and ourselves. We hope you
can join us in helping to move forward young
lives via a media career.
Bob Walters
Barrie Birch
October 2008
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