The VOA project - let´s fly

Children & youth

Sep 12

Who: Children at Risk Foundation and Rede Cultural Beija-Flor

What: The VOA Project: Cultural activities and vocational training for children growing up in the Brazilian favela. Empowering and supporting women.

Where: São Paulo, Brazil

Project period: 2022-2024

Web: Children at Risk Foundation and Rede Cultural Beija-Flor

Children At Risk Foundation (CARF) is a Norwegian NGO partnered up with the Brazilian organization Rede Cultural Beija-Flor (RCBF), that runs three social activity centers in slum areas in larger São Paulo. The scope of these three social activity centers are children and youngsters growing up in the slums, and their families. These centers have become true hubs for societal change, promoting positive development in the children by tapping into their innate creative capacities providing educational support; vocational training courses; and job placement services for both youngsters and adults.

The Portuguese verb “voa” translates “to fly”. The VOA project, solely funded by the Grieg Foundation, aims to help children and their families to do just that: To fly to new heights. People living in slum areas often lack more than just material gods to change their circumstances; often, their inner lives become poverty-stricken as well, inflicting low self-esteem, and loss of sight of opportunities. The VOA project aims to reverse that – to create an incentive for the individual, be it a child, youngster, or adult, to look upon her- or himself as an asset with multiple capacities and opportunities for the future. Facilitating these values – Vocations, Opportunities, and Accomplishments – is the foundation of CARFs partnership with the Grieg Foundation.

Vocations, Opportunities and Accomplishment

The VOA project is based on three sub-projects. The first one is called Colors of Art. Colors of Art strengthen children and young people’s cultural identities and personal development through creative exploration. To do this, VOA aims at offering diverse cultural courses and workshops, such as capoeira, dance, percussion, theater, painting, sculpture, and much more.

The second part of the VOA project is Income Creation Initiatives, promoting work and income generation by offering free vocational training courses and professional job placement services – all in collaboration with the Brazilian job-tutoring institutions, Sebrae, Senai, and Senac. Income Creation Initiatives is an expansion of a job development project born amid the pandemic to help the many families without an income stream due to the lockdowns.

The last part of the VOA project is Valiant Girls. There are numerous brave young women in the favela – despite the harsh conditions many of them face, such as violence and oppressive family relations. This prevents many young women from excelling academically and in life generally. To fight this problem, the VOA project provides high school scholarships for talented young girls, broad educational tutoring about women’s rights, and helpful resources for women facing oppression and violence.

Grieg Foundation has supported Children at Risk Foundation’s project in Brazil since 2008, and we are proud to be part of this journey. Read more about our previous collaborations