Dr Christina Heinl works in the international banking field with particular connections with Brazil and Latin America. She is the chairperson of Flame, a charity dedicated to exchanges of ideas and interests in the arts and humanities between Latin America and the UK. She has initiated a wide variety of projects involving children and young people in cross-cultural exchanges.
Slobodanka Popovic originally trained in Belgrade as a Speech Therapist and then worked in Bosnia. She trained in the UK as a Systemic Family Therapist and now works in the BEST /CAMHS teams in Greenwich in several primary and secondary schools supporting children and families.

Patsy Way originally trained as a primary school teacher and has worked in in a variety of schools and adult and further education institutions in several inner city boroughs . She also trained as a Systemic Family Therapist and currently works supporting children and families in the Candle Project, a children’s bereavement project at St Christopher’s Hospice.
Sponsored by Flame (www.flame-uk.com), Slobodanka Popovic and Patsy Way visited and worked in Acaia last March. They were hugely impressed by the interest, energy and focus of the children they met in Acaia which is a remarkable project based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, working with children from the favela (slum) at the end of the street. Acaia has developed a model of social support bridging home and school. Over a hundred and fifty children and young people pass through Acaia daily and are offered a huge range of educational and life-enhancing experiences which include arts and crafts, work with textiles,dance, cooking, engraving, carpentry, capoeira, music,gardening and support to access further education. Acaia was the inspiration of a remarkable woman, Elisa Bracher,who is an internationally known sculptress with experience of working on projects in England. She has an extraordinary vision of how to support some of the most deprived children in the city to develop skills and ambitions to take them into a more optimistic future.


Our Proposal:
Having made very close links with children and staff in Acaia we believe a reciprocal visit would have huge benefits for all concerned. We propose:
- To invite four secondary-aged children who have developed outstanding skills in engraving, along with one of their teachers and two other key members of the Acaia staff.
- To offer to host this group for eleven days in London, accommodated in a youth hostel.
- A programme involving the London Print Studio , directed by John Phillip, to include the young Brazilians and pupils from …School.
We suggest:
Pupils work together for one week developing all aspects involved in preparing an exhibition of engraving, including publicity, mounting exhibits and archiving, as well as producing the artwork.

Flame would make all arrangements for accommodation, transport and support of the young people throughout their stay.
The London Print Studio would provide direction and guidance for the work and materials.
The school would be invited to welcome the four young people and their teacher for a week to work together on the project.


Proposed timing: One week in June/July 2007, after exams .