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Brazil
Brazil? Lush green rain forests, the colourful splendour of Carnival, golden sandy beaches, and hot steamy cities, multitudes of people, cramped conditions, sprawling shanty towns, poverty, hunger, prostitution, drug gang warfare, fear, danger, murder.
Not very far from the centre of Rio de Janeiro, the splendour of the Copacabana beach with its fabulous high-rise apartments and hotels, nestled in an area world's apart in appearance but only miles in distance, is situated the Projeto Alcancando Vidas (The Reaching Lives Project) a Pre-school for 60 children between the ages of one and twelve. The area is a poor urban drug-trafficking neighbourhood, notorious for gang warfare and certain hillside shantytowns ruled by drug leaders with police fearful of getting involved with such dangerous men.
Each child who attends the project represents a desperate family situation. Little ones of three and four years of age already are experiencing the psychological effects of neglect. At four years old, Lucas has to protect his mother from his violent father often high from the effects of drugs. All he can do in his frustration is to bite his father and therefore at school, when confronted with a threatening situation, he defends himself the only way he knows how – by biting others.
“Little aeroplanes that don't even exist”
The main threat to the children living in the neighbourhood is being caught up in carrying drugs. The children found playing on the streets are targeted and picked up by adult traffickers to do their dirty work because there is no legal penalty for minors in Brazil. The financial rewards are high and the money can feed a family for a while.
These children are known as "aviıezinhos" or "little
aeroplanes". Their task is to retrieve and deliver the drugs. Often
the police know who the children are although they legally cannot be touched.
However nobody would know if some of them suddenly went missing, especially
as some of these children have never been registered at birth and therefore
do not even exist. A shocking corrupt reality
and a real-life danger that the children living in the area and attending
Projeto Alcancando Vidas face.
The Pre-School Project objective is to reveal to such children and their families the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who can change their desperate situation and give them hope. This objective is being achieved practically through the full-time day school where they receive meals, showers, love and an education with a strong spiritual emphasis. In conjunction with the school, a team visits their homes and works alongside their families. With their children safely in school, parents are helped to seek job opportunities. The children are off the streets and less likely to be a target for trafficking drugs.
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