A new building in Recife

I was delighted during my recent visit to Recife to see work well underway on a new building for one of Happy Child’s key partners, Instituto Solidare.  We work with them to provide the Training and Skills programme, which helps young  people bridge the gap between a basic secondary education and applying for apprenticeships in some of Recife’s big companies.  We also support a Mothers and Babies programme which helps young mothers to look after their babies while at the same time continuing with their education and finding work.

The community that we serve through Instituto Solidare is the Coqueiral region of Recife, a poor community largely built on swamp land.  A river that runs through the community frequently overflows, flooding homes and buildings with filthy water and disrupting our programmes. The new building will have a car park on the ground floor, with all the teaching and administrative accommodation securely situated, safe from flooding, on the first and second floors.

The new building is becoming a reality. But it's not just a brick-and-mortar project—what happens inside the building is what truly matters.

The work that the Instituto Solidare does with children and young people will not only continue but will expand significantly.

We expect that around 900 children will be impacted by this project. They will have the opportunity to come, study, and prepare for work, internships, and higher education.

These 900 children will have an added advantage that they simply wouldn't have without the new building.

Funding for the new building was facilitated through a good friend of mine from São Paulo, Stephen O’Sullivan, who I bumped into at a conference in Oxford in July 2023. He was interested to hear about Happy Child, particularly since he was a board member of the Edward Gostling Foundation, a charity that funds projects with poor communities including in Brazil.

So, with Stephen’s encouragement, we submitted a funding application which was approved. Since then, much time has been taken in planning and securing the necessary approvals, but that is now done and work is underway. With increasing costs, we may still need to raise more money to finish and equip the building, but at least work is now in progress. Thank you Stephen and the Edward Gostling Foundation for your fantastic support!

Written by: John Doddrell, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Happy Child Internationa