2007.06 - A Child's Garden of Peace: Update

A Child's Garden of Peace - 2007 Report on Work in Brazil

Summary

1. New York: Visited Rikers Island prison garden to inform requests for similar project with women prisoners and their children in Argentina.
2. Rio: Worked with community day care in favela to develop vegetable, herb and flower garden with the children
3. São Paulo: site visit for future Carapicuiba community garden project
4. Santo Ângelo: a )playground by river built by the dept. of education one full year after I gave them $500 towards supplies. At last the kids have a place to play off the street.
   1. Morning and afternoon environmental children's groups held at community center
   2. Planted Zelina School flower gardens with students and teachers, start seeds in classrooms
   3. Hold afternoon and night lessons for community women to learn to make the pop-top purses
   4. Support women to form workers collective to make and sell purses
   5. Formed partnership with the Syndicate of Urban Women Workers   
      1. They will supervise the two young women who I hired to work with the children and who will continue that work while I am gone in return for college scholarships.
      2. Sindicate will also help the mothers do the legal work to form the co-op   
   6. Established Scholarship program that grew to three young women by Dec. 20, with 8 US and Canadian donors giving enough for full year of 260 reais per month (US 150.)
   7. Economic development in community: about $2150. went to youth and adult women as payment for their work teaching children and moms, preparing food, doing child care.   
5. São Borja: review the garden development program at the Convent children's program

   Details

   I traveled by air to Brazil via NY, where I was able to visit the Riker's Island prison garden started by the NY Horticulture Society, under direction of James Jiler. Spent a day working with the prisoners, men in am, women in pm to get a feel for how it all works. Rasjid Cesar wants me to help him start a prison garden in Argentina and James donated a book to Rasjid. Visited NY Botanical Gardens youth programs and bought books in Spanish for Rasjid to use with women imprisoned with children.

   Illène Pevec creating gardens with children in Brazil.

   1. Two weeks in Rocinha, Brazil's largest slum of 250,000 people, 65% of them under eighteen.       

      Worked with the community's oldest community run day care serving 120 children 4 months to 4 years and about 40 children 5 to 13.       

      In the evenings literacy classes: 80 adults, 4 classes, 6pm-8pm, 8pm-10-pm.
      

      1. I worked with the daycare to start a garden on the roof play area, planted vegetables, flowers, herbs in beds and pots.
      2. Visited Botanical Gardens youth program to ask for help to continue gardening education at daycare/refused help, but referred to city program.
      3. Volunteered two separate evenings to teach each group of adults, huge need for English teacher volunteers
      4. Interviewed Thiago Santiago, age 13 and his mother for a book to be published through the Children Growing Up in Cities UNESCO program. Visited where he volunteers at a daycare and where he studies dance in Rocinha-transferred $1500 donation from Willem Van Vliet to Thiago for school expenses and the daycare.
      5. Made numerous community contacts in Rocinha of people involved in programs for children: Roupa Suja, Alegria da Crianca, other daycares.
         

      Biggest Challenge:Fear from level of firearms in community, garbage everywhere

      The company that donated compost to daycare had truck and driver attacked     

   2. Sào Paulo    

      Visited site of the Escola Cultural-OCA Carapicuiba This ten year old program serves the children of immigrants from Brazil's northeast who live in Carapicuiba favela. They have been given land by the town inside the town's ecological park on a small lake. They want me to come and help them start a community garden there with the families of the children they serve once the building is complete.

   3. Santo Angelo
      1. Worked with municipal school district, directors of public works and director of environment to implement the playground for the children in the designated green area by the Itaquarinchim River. By the time I left, one play structure was built and other under construction, children already playing in large numbers there daily. This is the fulfillment of an almost 7 year effort on the part of the children and me to engage city officials in meeting the children's right to a place to play. The city council president promised us wood for the project in 2002 when he was only a councilman and gave us the wood this year. $500. Donation from A Child's Garden of Peace last year went into supplies to build the equipment.
      2. Worked with Zelina school teachers and children to plant flowers and seeds. (too late in year to restart vegetables because of summer vacation. One teacher from the school will work with the two young scholarship winner in planning and delivering children's programs during the summer.
      3. Built on last year's crochet classes for women by offering purse making classes afternoons and evenings. Over 40 women learned, 30 have formed a legal cooperative.   
      4. Provided day care for babies and toddlers during purse making classes.
      5. Provided children's programming mornings and afternoons at the community center: daily environmental activity, art activities, planting of seeds for community garden, stories, songs, and outdoor play.
      6. Formed partnership with the Syndicate of Women Urban Workers. This group is mostly educators, all volunteers, they run a program for at risk girls every afternoon. They provided a lawyer in their syndicate to help the mothers form the coop. They will supervise the funds for the scholarships and visit the girls getting the scholarships monthly at the site of the children's programs the scholarship recipients will continue to run.
      7. Formed partnership with Director of Environment to deliver his new program in environmental stewardship to our afternoon group of children: includes tree planting, trash education and will support them to do education within the community.
      8. All the town papers carried our events and the development of the purse project.
      9. Held a film might at the community Catholic church with the help of Secretary of Culture: Showed the 4 films made by the kids and had a ceremony to give the kids their prize money from Aspen Valley Film Festival. Mayor, Vice-mayor and president of City council all attended, standing room only.
      10. Signed contracts with Jaqueline and Tante to do community service 5 days a week by continuing morning and afternoon activities with the children in return for the college scholarships. Jaqueline passed the exam to enter the Business Administration faculty. Tante must complete two tests to continue her elementary school teaching program that she left 6 years ago.
      11. A week after I left Carine passed the university entrance exam and asked for scholarship help to go. In 24 hours 8 friends and family here contributed the necessary amount.  
   4. São Borja

      I had hoped to combine a visit to see the children's program that we helped with last year in São Borja at the convent with a visit to Argentina to see Rasjid and plan steps towards starting a prison garden program for the women he works with in Buenos Aires who are in jail with their young children. It wasn't possible for us to find times that jived, so I went to São Borja only for a day to see the work done on the garden since I left a year ago. The academic and practical challenge this year has been for each age group, with their teachers, to do a major activity to learn about soil. They started five new gardens in their five age groupings and impressed me with how much learning, digging and planting all of them accomplished as they created flower, vegetable, herb and medicinal gardens in various sites around the campus. This program has received accolades from UNICEF and is now in the running to win some prize money next year perhaps.

      The sewing program that we began in 2005 when a friend of mine in Canada donated money for sewing machines has won funding from HSBC for 3 years to develop the women's skills enough to have a sewing cooperative. The mothers in the program love this opportunity to perfect a skill that makes them able to learn money in a healthy, relaxed, studious work environment. 

Mothers and Children

In all the projects I work with and have visited, there are mother's groups that work on some kind of handicraft-skill development for the mothers to have a way to earn a living other than being maids. This self-determination process has many benefits for their children because it provides the mothers with income and often the chance to work near their children in the same facility where the children have programs or at home. Each of the program also provides healthy food to the children and sometimes to the mothers.