Life in the northeast of Brazil is one of varying extremes.  For example many of the teams we have taken have stayed in nice hotels on the beach fronts of Fortaleza and Joao Pessoa, while working everyday with people living in extreme poverty.  I believe this serves to drive the point home in the hearts of team members that awareness of injustice associated with poverty, like: lack of clean drinking water, unacceptable housing, systemic illiteracy and lack of proper nutrition, without action is pointless.  The real challenge is for our teams to return to the United States and influence people to act on the knowledge presented to them.

Influence is a powerful instrument to bring about change if exercised in the right moment with the right audience.  I believe we have the opportune moment and we have a target audience that is highly motivated to do something positive for the 7000 people living in the Villa Feliz and Communidade slum projects, as well as not only sustaining the Funducao Educar school, but be the driving force in the expansion of the school through the Brazilian equivalent of the 12th grade.

For example, sustaining and growing Funducao Educar is a simple of issue of reaching critical mass (gaining so much momentum that a project or idea is unstoppable).  To sustain the current population of the school, Seeds of Life needs to raise $4,000.00 per month beginning in September 2010 (March – August is being covered by The Father’s House).  Simply using social networks like FaceBook and SocialVibe, Seeds of Life would need only 4,000 people to offer $1 per month, or 400 people to offer $10 per month, or 80 people to offer $50 per month, or 40 people to offer $100 per month (I think you get the hint).

The point being is the people who have been to Brazil over the past 10 months, through the momentum created by Seeds of Life, have the opportunity to raise awareness with everyone in their spheres of influence, thus raising the funds necessary to see the school grow beyond current levels.

The goal is to raise $150,000 per year beginning in 2012.  This would equate to about $12,500.00 per month.  Excess money would be re-invested so that with the interest, Seeds of Life could identify future projects within the domain of Funducao Educar.

Raising awareness is not difficult, nor is influencing people to take action a mystery.  Most people want to do something about the injustice that is rampant in our world, they just need a focused target.  We will provide that target.

Josie was just 12 years old when she got married the first time. She bore two children during her 7 year marriage to her abusive husband. Her husband prevented her from coming outside for four years.

Josie was 19 years old when her husband died, leaving her to raise the children on her own. This task would be difficult for anyone, but was made even more dire because Josie could not read or write. Josie decided she must learn to read and write if she ever wanted to provide a better future for her children. Not only did Josie learn how to read and write, she went on to university and graduated with advanced degrees in education and social sciences.

Josie was given a plot of land in Conde (Con-gee), about 20km from the city of Joao Pessoa, Brazil (the eastern most point of the Americas). Josie (since remarried) saw the plight of the children in Conde, and was motivated to make a difference. Most of the children of Conde live in homes with no running water and are under-nourished.

Josie used the land to build a school for the children of Conde.  Fundacao Educar provides an education to children from infant to 5th grade.  Josie cares for infants so the parents can either be employed or seek job training.  The children are fed three meals per day and allowed to shower each day.

The amazing thing is that Josie operates the school without any government assistance despite the fact her school is the only hope the children of the community have for a decent education. Not only does the government fail to provide any assistance to Josie, they also have chosen not to build a school in the community.

However, the government is threatening to shut the school down because Josie is unable to pay the 23 teachers who volunteer at the school.  Consequently, Seeds of Life is endeavoring to raise $48,000 for CY2010 so that each of the 23 teachers will be paid a minimal salary.  The salary will cover transportation expenses to and from Congie.

Our overall goal is to establish a fund that will pay out $150,000 a year to the school to pay for teachers through 12th grade.  This will give every child in the community an opportunity to complete primary school.

Seeds of Life will partner with another non-profit in Belo Horizonte, Brazil who will provide technical school training and job placement for the high school graduates of Fundacao Educar.

Michele is 19 years old and lives on the outskirts of the Villa Feliz slum community in Joao Pessoa, Brazil.  Michele has lived in the slum for 5 years.  She has two children, ages 1 and 3.  Her husband spends most of the day looking for plastic, aluminum, and paper for recycle.

When we were speaking with Michele, she became very upset because she was unable to provide breast milk for her infant son because she herself was malnourished. I was overwhelmed with emotion (I kept saying, “This isn’t right.”) watching the infant trying to get milk from her mother without any success.

Our team was able to find some infant food (Infamil) and some rice for the rest of the family.  It was a very difficult situation, as I knew there were probably many more mothers and children in the same situation.

Villa Feliz is one of three communities (two slums and one primary school) that Seeds of Life believes will be transformed in one generation.  Much of Villa Feliz has been rehabilitated and is moving toward development of further infrastructure.

We want to see the remaining shanties turned into houses within the next 24 months. Then, we will continue working with a local non-profit Um127 to see the development of houses and people so that permanent change occurs.

Francisco is a 57 year old husband and father who has lived in the Villa Feliz slum for 12 years.  He spends his days looking for paper, plastic, and aluminum that he can recycle. He has seen much transformation in the last 2 years.  His shanty was converted into a house with cement walls and floors.  He told me the biggest problems in Villa Feliz are poverty and drug use.

Francisco said he has faith in God that change will continue to take place and the Villa Feliz community will be completely transformed.

“ZeZe” is a seeker of justice for the people living in the thousands of “favelas” throughout Brazil.  ZeZe grew up in a slum in central Fortaleza (pop. 1.5 million) called the Quadrente or Square.  ZeZe had a difficult life and soon found himself using and selling crack cocaine.  ZeZe became one of the most influential people in the Square through the power he had as a drug dealer. ZeZe believes God gave him wisdom for solving poverty in Brazil.  Doors were opened for him to meet the governor of his state which led to a meeting with the president of Brazil.  He just completed a documentary film about favela life in Brazil, and his finishing up a book emphasizing additional details that didn’t make the film.

ZeZe is now the leader of an  international group whose goal is to  stamp out poverty in slums of the  world.  Later this year he will be  speaking in Philadelphia and New York.  Our desire is to sponsor him to San    Francisco so he can speak at UC  Berkeley and UC Davis.

“Francesca” is a 65 year old woman who has lived in the Community for the past 40 years. She is the matriarch of a family of around 20 people.  ”Francesca” lives in a humble little home with her kids, grand-kids, and great-grand-kids.

“Francesca” told us that the greatest challenge of living in the Community is the violence.  We have seen the precursor to the violence and its after effects firsthand.  In August 2009, our small team of three encountered one of the local crack dealers who brazenly carried a .38 Special in his waste band even though private ownership of handguns is illegal in Brazil.   Also, we have personally interviewed two people who have been shot.  One is now paralyzed from the waist down due to a bullet that is lodged in his spine.  The second was recently shot in the stomach.  The bullet traveled through his stomach cavity and exited near his lower spine.

The police patrol the area regularly, but are reluctant to get involved because they will find themselves quickly outnumbered. So, daily violence is common to the people living in the Community.

Dokr and Jarena are sisters who live in “the Community,” a slum in Fortaleza, Brazil. Both women are in their early forties, and both are addicted to crack cocaine.  Crack cocaine abuse in the slums (favelas) of northeast Brazil is rampant.

Jarena spends much of her day looking for things to sale to support her daily crack use. Her husband is addicted to crack as are her teenage sons.  Jarena has two younger children (daughters aged 4 and 7) whom she is concerned will suffer the same fate as the rest of her family.  Jarena desperately wants to be free of her addiction, and is willing to do almost anything to see this bondage in her life destroyed.

On the other hand, Dokr, has no desire to quit using crack.  She too is a daily user, and has been selling her body to support her habit for years.  Dokr says she is 41, but she looks to be twice that age.  Dokr has had 21 children, and has abandoned the majority of them at childbirth.

Our goal is to see a community center erected in the middle of the Community slum project, where on-sight drug rehab can take place.  Also, we are in the process of working with the local police to identify and remove the crack dealers from the slum.

Right now, readers of this blog can help by spreading the word about world-wide injustice, and there is a probable fix by working with one community at a time through community organization and development.

More to follow…

Fundacao Educar in Conde (Con-gee), Brazil

Seeds of Life International is a non-profit organization comprised of common people from the U.S. and abroad who share a single vision - to see the world changed for people who live in extreme injustice.  Over 1 billion people live on less than $10 per day. By the time you finish reading this blog entry about 8 children, aged 1 day to 5 years, will have died of poverty related issues (this is based on 2008 statistics of 25,000 child deaths per day in the age range of new-born to 5 years).

Awareness of injustice is great, but we want to provide an avenue for the common person to get involved in a very tangible way.  The goal: to see people go from awareness to action.

Generous minded people really do want to help.  We want to help them help others by by providing a very narrow focus. We want to see the lives of about 7,000 people living in two slums in the northeast of Brazil radically transformed within one generation by providing education, medical aid, clean drinking water, vocational training, and counseling.

We believe whole heartedly that we cannot change the world, but we can change the world one person at a time, one family at a time, one community at a time, all within one generation.