Social project “Olhar Jovem”

The Formation Center Sr. Rita Cavenaghi (CENFIRC), is located in a reality of social vulnerability, where there are several poor communities from the outskirts of Sao Paulo in the neighborhoods of Vila Missionaria, Jardim Selma, Parque Primavera and Cidade Julia.

Most children and adolescents who attend our Center – CENFIRC, live in slum houses, built in precarious and deprived conditions of sanitary infrastructure, drinking water, electricity, garbage collection, lacking quality schools and community centers. With limited area for recreational activities the houses are built of bricks with more then one story high, with no space between them, forming an area densely populated that highlights the inequality, marginalization and social exclusion of the population living there.

Project Description

Among CENFIRC’s educational proposals is the social Project “Olhar Jovem” that begun in February to attend the adolescents aged 12 to 16 years old and their families.

The main objective of the Project is to learn to have a Look Young for and with the reality around and to develop a sensitivity that carefully observes the daily life and to value it, helping the young to grow in protagonism and citizenship, becoming active agents of transformation in the context they live. The method used was Educommunication, a new area that unites education and communication and it works in a participatory style.

In 2019, the project offered two laboratories, one for photography and the other for comic drawing. About 40 teenagers were attended. This year we were able to offer an online comics course, entitled “Comic Quarantine”, to a group of 8 students. The course allowed them to express and elaborate their experiences during the quarantine.

In 2021 we would like to propose the course planned for this year, which we were unable to implement due to the covid-19 pandemic. Entitled “Neighborhood stories: photography, comics and journalism” (Histórias da quebrada: photography, quadrinhos and jornalismo), the course aims to redeem the memory of the neighborhood, as well as developing photography, comics and journalism skills.

The project team consists of 6 educators including psychologists, educators, Photographers and Educommunicators. We also hired a young woman to help us prepare the snacks and clean up the project class rooms. These are the expenses we have for the smooth running of the project:

Allowances for educators & salary for general services assistant, expenses for teaching materials, educational tours and expenses for preparation of course completion production such as (photography exhibition, comic book, autobiography and others materials produced throughout the workshops).

Budget itens

Totale activity costs R$ 23.200,00 (Euro 3.656,00)

Comics of the students – online course “Quarantine comics” offered in  2020