Vanessa – An Agent of Transformation

We Brazilians grew up listening and reading stories about how difficult it was to get an education, a factor all blamed on our ancestors, often generations we couldn’t even identify with. What can be expected from a colonized country where the exploitation of people was rife and often the strong arm of slavery was used for economic development, also an era that denied people their basic right to an education.

A Brazilian literary work called “Torto Arado” tackles the efforts of a father trying to provide an education for his children.  One sentence says “My Father couldn’t read and write and his signature was a thumb print.  What I saw him most pursue and desire was that his children would be able to read and write”. Although this is the 20^th Century the concept remains the same and is as relevant today as it was then.  A healthy parent’s desire is that their children will flourish.  This was certainly the case for Vanessa.

Vanessa is a teacher with one of Happy Child International’s partner project Ammar Transforma operating in the low-income Joanna Bezerra community. Vanessa grew up in this community and her own parents had to fight for everything.  She shares “My Father was illiterate and my Mother only reached the 6^th year of school at 11 years old.  However I was always really encouraged to study and do well at school so that my future could be better than that of my parents.   They said to me that completing my education could change my future”.

Despite the restrictions of living in a low-income community Vanessa overcame and completed her education.  Today she empathizes with the children and young people in her community and with the difficulties they face to access a good education.  According to IBGE (The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Economics) 53.6% of children aged between 2 and 3 years old are not in any kind of educational environment like a creche or pre school.  Not all Brazilian children get off to a good start. Trusted research states that falling behind in school between the ages of 6 to 14 is a common factor in the school system.  Someone like Vanessa could easily accept the status quo but she doesn’t. Like her parents she believes in the transformative power of education. This is why she shows up at the Ammar Transforma project giving her time to supporting children and young people growing up in a similar context to her own.

The classes at the Ammar Transforma project run from Monday to Friday either in the morning or the afternoon dovetailing with  the school system. She says “We have an average of 40 children doing our classes which focus on maths and Portuguese.   The children who attend are aged 7 upwards and one or two may have some kind of learning difficulty. These children often need extra help and may get overlooked in main stream school”.

Vanessa talks about the biggest challenge which is “discipline”. IBGE also states in its research that often the lack of discipline in schools can contribute to children and young people falling behind in their studies. Here in our classes we try and teach the children who come to us to be polite and respectful.  This is part of what we do as well.

Paulo Freire, one of the great Brazilian educationalists once said.“Education doesn’t transform the world.  Education changes a person. 

People change the world”.  Vanessa herself was transformed by the power of education and today she is on a mission to help transform the lives of the children and young people in her community so they can have better futures.  

• Written by Eduarda Teixeira

➔ In our next blog you will be able to read about Leticia and how the transforming power of Education gave her a life changing experience at just 14 years old.