Porto Alegre – Brazil

Renovation of a favela school

HelpAlliance improves safety conditions for the children of a primary school in the south of Brazil. With the building of a wall around a school yard, HelpAlliance supports “Stern des Südens e.V.” (Star of the south NPO) in their extensive renovation of the school.

The roof is leaking, windows are broken, electric cables lie around uncovered and there is no access to the school for disabled children. A wall around the premises which would guarantee safe teaching conditions is missing. This is the present situation in the primary school Profa Marina Martins de Souza, which is located on the edge of a slum in Porto Alegre.

The school has 420 students who are split in two groups of morning and afternoon classes. 70% of the students live on the neighbouring dumps. The urgently needed renovations cannot be funded by the Brazilian department of education. The available funds are just sufficient for the teachers’ salaries. However, as far as school materials are concerned, the parents have to pay for themselves. As they often cannot afford paying for school books etc. their children are disadvantaged.

After the completion of the wall the children will be safe at least from robbery or from teenagers who so far have entered the school ground to sell drugs. In future, the gates will be supervised by teachers and they will ensure that only entitled persons have access to the school.

Of course, a lot is still missing, but safety is the most urgent item and a huge step forward has been taken.

More pictures to be found here