The power of a village
There is an African proverb that says: “It takes a village to raise a child” and this saying really represents Sergio Ricardo’s story. Twenty years old, no longer a child, in his story it’s noted that a whole village looked after him and continues to do so.
Throughout the whole conversation the young man made a point of highlighting the importance of family as an incentive for his studies. Including the fact his story with Happy Child began because of his Auntie. He shared: I knew about the Mentoring and Skills project because of my Auntie. She lived in a district close to Instituto Solidare. “Look she said to me, look at this course, sign up”. The mentoring and skills project run by Instituto Solidare in partnership with Happy Child was 22km, more or less one and a half hours by public transport from my house. But the incentive of her village didn’t allow him to give up. He commented “I learnt from my mother and my aunties that I should grab all the opportunities that came my way in life. They were fighters.”
His participation in the project changed his future, but above all changed his way of being. From a shy personality to a communicative young person, this was a major transformation, he remembers: “In the medical studies I communicated little, it was the Mentoring and Skills project I really developed and spoke more and wasn’t embarrassed about speaking.” Sergio changed so much that he learnt to speak English with lessons from John Doddrell in 2025 and the two met again at the beginning of 2026 the two chatted only in English showing the young man was no longer shy.
His journey with English gave him perspective for the future. He said “English was beautiful to me. John’s teaching enthralled me, it was easy to learn with him. I used to remember my family saying to me that I needed to learn English to better understand the area of Information Technology.” The care from this other village helped this young person discover his profession. In the mentoring and skills project, he graduated as a computer technician and straight after did a course in Information technology on use of the internet at the Federal Institute in Pernambuco – IFPE, he wanted to pass at the Federal University to be a computer gaming programmer.
He also said: “You showed me another way. Today my hobby is to translate texts into English, I want to one day live in Canada, I want to go to a Federal University. Everyone needs to know about the project”
Sergio’s story breaks down barriers. Statistics point out that less than 5% of Brazilian society has some knowledge of English and 1% of the population is considered fluent. In addition to this less than 11% of Brazilian young people take or attend a course in the technology profession. Sergio was one of these statistics, and this was only possible because it took a village to care for him.
You can be a part of this village and care for other children, adolescents and young people. Support the work of Happy Child and become a part of these stories. It takes a village.
And you can be part of it.
Help create opportunities for children, teenagers and young people to build a brighter future.
Written by Eduarda Teixeira
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