Welcome to Hummingbird's 17th. Capoeira Batizado

Capoeira Beija-Flor invites you to come on Saturday, 25th.April 2009 at 14.00hrs. at The Hummingbird Arts & Cultural Activity Centre.

Conexões Urbanas - Extracts

Extracts from this week's Conexões Urbanas on GloboSat's MULTISHOW, channel 42.

From Europe to the periphery of São Paulo

Da Europa para a periferia de São Paulo.
Nasce o CARF (Children At Risk Foundation) em Noruega por um grande ideal em 1992. Gregory J. Smith realizou um velho sonho: Vendeu sua bela casa, leiloou todos os seus móveis e pertences, usou suas reservas econômicas e experiência em um projeto de ajuda as crianças de várias partes do mundo.

O grande ideal de Gregory ao chegar no Brasil era construir um caminho efetivo de recuperação para crianças que vivem na rua, e criando alternativas de uma vida digna para a população infanto-juvenil em situação de risco.

O Programa Preventivo nasceu em 1996, da necessidade de complementar o trabalho de reeducação e inserção das crianças e jovens em processo de recuperação em um meio social que promovesse referencial positivo, que se iniciou com o encaminhamento para a aprendizagem da Capoeira. O Grupo de Capoeira Contemporânea Beija-Flor representa hoje em nosso trabalho, um dos maiores elementos de inclusão social e é seguramente uma das atividades de maior impacto social que desenvolvemos, com ca.350 jovens e crianças praticando regularmente, aqui na Rede Cultural Beija-Flor e na Noruega.

Poverty and neglect at Sítio Joaninha

Muita pobreza e descaso no SÍTIO JOANINHA.
Elegemos como nossa porta estratégica o Grupo Referencial Positivo de Jovens Empreendedores para alcançarmos o nosso Público-Alvo: crianças e jovens em áreas de risco social e pessoal, alguns já em conflito com a sociedade e a lei. Constatando que é no grupo, que o jovem desenvolve intensas trocas, que ajudam a construir sua identidade pessoal e social, acreditamos que um grupo com referenciais positivos de respeito mútuo, ética, valorização do potencial humano, solidariedade e promoção de paz possa transformar positivamente a vida de nossas crianças e jovens. Djalma dos Santos é um exemplo.

Conexões Urbanas - Rede Cultural Beija-Flor

O próximo Conexões Urbanas no Multishow, no dia 5 de janeiro, traz a Rede Cultural Beija-Flor. Nos arredores da maior cidade do Brasil, um lugar esquecido pela sociedade. No mapa consta como uma reserva ambiental, mas ao vivo é um antro de pobreza. Foi lá que aterrissou um gringo vindo dos fiordes noruegueses, um empreendedor que se emocionou com uma sessão de "Pixote" e embarcou disposto a resgatar as vidas perdidas de Diadema. Com o filme na cabeça e um projeto social na mão, Gregory Smith montou a Rede Cultural Beija-Flor, organização que juntou lideranças e talentos das próprias comunidades para criar novas perspectivas no meio da miséria.



O Conexões Urbanas vai ao ar no canal Multishow sempre as segundas-feiras, às 21h45. Com um tema diferente a cada semana, o programa tem como objetivo acabar com apartheid social, criar elos de conhecimento, cultura e afetividade entre os diversos guetos em que a sociedade se dividiu: ricos e pobres, brancos e pretos.

Conectado com os mais recentes pensamentos de sustentabilidade, tecnologia, cidadania, saúde e paz, José Junior apresenta empresas e pessoas que vêm experimentando transformações sociais ousadas e bem sucedidas no Brasil e no mundo.

Dirigido por Rafael Dragaud, produzido por José Junior (AfroReggae) e Augusto Casé (Casé Filmes) e com direção de fotografia de Maritza Caneca, o programa pode ainda ser conferido em horários alternativos: Terça, às 16h; Quarta, às 13h; Quinta, às 5h30; Sexta, às 17h30 e Domingo, às 8h30. Confira sempre o site do Multishow, pois os horários alternativos podem mudar.

Veja a chamada do programa desta segunda-feira, através do YouTube.

Ou através do Canal do AfroReggae

The Hummingbird Project - Retrospective 2008

The Hummingbird Project - Retrospective 2008 from Rede Cultural Beija-Flor on Vimeo.

View the full version HERE

Thanks to hundreds of individual supporters, including many from the Blogger Global Community, the Children At Risk Foundation completed yet another successful year, one of the most optimistic in 15 years of our existence in Brazil, with almost 1.000 children and young people attended.

This year looks even more promising and we have many exciting and ambitious plans for positive social change in 2009, but without your support none of what you see in this video retrospective would have been possible. The video was made by youth in the programme who only a few years ago never had contact with computers.

It only costs an average USD$400,00 a year to keep a kid protected in our Street Migration Prevention Programme. That’s all it costs to change the destiny of an at-risk child at Hummingbird, which was judged as one of the 12 best projects of São Paulo for the esteemed Deutsches Bank Urban Age Award 2008 in strong competition with 133 organizations. We did not win the $100.000 prize as we had hoped, but we were very proud to be among the 12 finalists.

YOU can help us to realize this year’s plans by contributing any amount or signing up as a regular monthly subscriber.

I will thank you and most certainly our children will too.

Urban Age Award 2008

Urban Age Award 2008, originally uploaded by carf.

Our actions depend on other people's ability to give. They are in fact limited by that fact, because we are a non-profit organization where our profits are measured in social gain. We are also a small grassroots organization with a very small administration, running on an even smaller budget. We don't have the millions needed for hi-class publicity campaigns in the media, to break through the giving barrier.
Nevertheless, earlier this month we were judged as one of the 12 best projects of São Paulo for the esteemed Deutsches Bank Urban Age Award 2008 in strong competition with 133 organizations. We did not win the $100.000 prize as we had hoped, but we were very proud to be among the 12 finalists.

On the award certificate we received at the prize giving ceremony are the following words:

We certify that the REDE CULTURAL BEIJA-FLOR (Hummingbird Cultural Network) distinguishes itself among the 12 best projects of the Deutsches Bank Urban Age Award São Paulo 2008.

Thank you to all our supporters for helping to make this possible!

World Community Arts Day - 2008

Organised by Craigmillar Communiversity on the 17th February 2008.

The idea of being part of a creative world community has always been enthusiastically supported by Hummingbird's community youth leaders. The results of their actions on the 17th February can be seen in this video clip, which was filmed and edited by them and which they have great pleasure in sharing with the rest of this wonderful world community.

Dia de Arte na Comunidade - 2008 - RCBF
Uploaded by gerson

Art as a catalyst for caring and sharing, World Community Arts Day 2008 has gone really well this year and has more than tripled in size. It is now a Global festival. From Brazil to Slovenia, from Australia to Ireland, from The USA to Singapore, from Kenya to Canada.
The World Community Arts Day begins to shows how many great projects there are that are based on Art for caring and sharing.

Embrace the stars...

Embrace the stars..., originally uploaded by carf.

A short RETROSPECTIVE of 2007 – Watch our latest Video HERE!

Reaching for a Star Campaign - 2007
To Date: USD$775,00

Beginning with three contributions of USD$50,00 each for the "purchase" of three personalized CHRISTMAS GIFT CERTIFICATES to friends and family from a Flickr member, the Reaching for a Star Campaign 2007 got off to a roaring start this week.

I hope many of Flickr's members, new to the community, will discover this alternative method of giving at Christmas, ideal for friends and family whom you feel already have everything.

Still having problems trying to decide what to give at Christmas?
Then this is surely the ideal gift that everyone will appreciate. Our children certainly do!

Simply go to our Christmas Gift Certificate Campaign Page and decide how much you would like to give by clicking on one of the donation buttons provided on the page. You can give any amount you desire.

This will bring you to our PayPal payments page ( PayPal is a global leader in online payment solutions with more than 153 million accounts worldwide. No need to worry, you don't need to have an account because payments can be made using most credit cards).
Don't forget to leave a message on the PayPal payments form stating who your certificate is to be made out to and from whom it is being given. We will then prepare your personalized gift certificate with those names and e-mail it off to you ready for printing on your desktop printer. Fast and easy without even leaving your computer.

100% of your gift goes towards the Hummingbird Project, attending more than 600 underprivileged children. This year's campaign funds will be used for purchasing musical instruments for our new community prevention centre in Sítio Joaninha due to open in February 2008.
This will be the first social development program available to at-risk community children in the region and a most important step towards bettering their lives.

Please join us to make it the success they deserve!

Gregory J. Smith
Social Entrepreneur and Founder
The Children At Risk Foundation - CARF

A change for the better...

A change for the better..., originally uploaded by carf.

During her first trimester of pregnancy, Paula, a mother from the shanty community of Sítio Joaninha, had listened ardently to what I had to say about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and the possible effects of alcohol on her unborn baby.

I find myself constantly informing pregnant mothers like Paula, whom I meet during my regular visits to the community, about the dangers of alcohol use during pregnancy. Paula’s habitual drinking gave me all the more reason to reinforce the information with her on each visit, about this leading known cause of mental retardation in the World today, with an occurrence rate of 1 in 750 live births. It is estimated that in the US alone, 5,000 infants are born each year with FAS and 50,000 with Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE). Approximately 30 to 40 percent of all women who drink heavily during pregnancy will have a baby with FAS. It is found in all races and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Brazil has no statistics on the subject and I am apt to believe that the numbers will be much higher here if ever the health authorities get round to doing research on the subject. The incredible number of youngsters from underprivileged communities in this country, involved with drugs and crime and living on the streets, could very well have roots back to the abuse of alcohol during pregnancy. Almost all the kids I have worked with on the streets or in youth delinquent detention centres came from alcohol abusive homes and specifically alcoholic mothers.......

Paula now believes that her alcohol abuse during pregnancy is probably the reason for her first-born son, João Vitor, to be the “impossible” child he makes out to be, a belief that gave her good enough reason to take heed of my advice and to stop drinking during the last 6 months of her recent pregnancy. Last week Paula’s second son was born, only a few days after the above photo was taken. I hope for the child’s sake and his mother’s too, that they will both be shielded from one more frustrating problem along with all the others they must deal with in their daily hardship to survive.

FAS / FAE is preventable - 100% preventable. Research has shown that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. The only sure way to prevent damage is to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy. There is no cure for FAS.

NB! As an important side note on this problem, our group of youth entrepreneurs, WINGS of Hummingbird, are developing a prevention programme about FAS / FAE to be introduced to Paula’s community next year.

WINGS OF HUMMINGBIRD

Capacity Building of Youth in Asset-based Community Development.

The implementation of a network of community nuclei in underprivileged communities of the periphery of São Paulo is part of CARF's expansion strategy in Asset-based Community Development. The technical project, "From Clients to Citizens", more popularly called "ASAS do Beija-Flor" ("WINGS of Hummingbird"), has now received its own BLOG, which aims to inform about developments in the programme and follow our network expansion. The WINGS project was developed to stimulate and capacitate youth in community leadership and to cater for their positive development and participation in Hummingbird's expansion.

Apart from the capacity building needs of these young people, another important aim with this project is to help diminish the flux of children from underprivileged communities to the streets by expanding our Street Migration Prevention Programme into at-risk communities, where these young entrepreneurs will hopefully continue to expand the actions that this project will help them develop.

Help us to become changemakers by connecting underprivileged communities through the expansion of our Hummingbird Cultural Network.

Teach them how to fish!

Take the plunge...!
Originally uploaded by carf.

"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime."

...continuing along the lines of this well-known Chinese proverb, we at CARF try as best we can to teach our kids how to fish. It is probably the only way they will never need to go hungry.
Most of Brazil's social problems stem from poverty, inequality and ignorance and it's hard to know where to begin to resolve them. Teaching our children simple skills and responsibilities and rewarding them for learning or helping is the first step to building self-esteem.

After a season of summer and Carnival holidays in Brazil, I am happy to get back to normal working days with all my staff present and in action at our Hummingbird Arts & Cultural Activity Centre, where they uphold the spirit of our Street Migration Prevention Programme and where building self-esteem is the essence of our efforts through artistic and cultural expression.

After such a recession in our programme, what better news to hear than that brought to me by Célio, one of our youth scholarship holders in training, who helps teach Hummingbird’s children music and guitar. Célio has been supported with one of our so-called Youth Capacity Building Scholarships, which are regular grant contributions made by individual sponsors of the programme throughout the entire year. Our aim with this kind of capacity building project is to create a team of new capacities within our programme; youth agents of social change within their own communities, prepared to take on the forthcoming expansion of the Hummingbird Project.


Célio above is one such agent and a good one at that.

With an almost "broken heart" and very reserved feelings about his decision, Célio waited for hours today, just to exchange a few personal words with me and express his feelings. He told me of the difficult decision he had made to leave his position as a scholarship holder at Hummingbird due to other responsibilities he was now taking on. Knowing that he comes from a particularly difficult family situation with many smaller brothers and sisters, I asked Célio why he had chosen to leave so suddenly. He then explained how during the holidays he had entered a major song contest arranged by a professional recording company here in São Paulo, competing against 36 other groups. Célio had managed to win first place, whereupon he had just signed a 3-year registered recording contract, which would pay him a guaranteed minimum monthly wage of approx. USD$800,00.

Now for an 18-year old kid from utmost poverty in Brazil, who comes from a family trying very hard to survive on the occasional odd jobs for his parents and a fraction of that amount to live on each month, Célio was of course overwhelmed by this opportunity. He had won the contest with the music he had recorded here at Hummingbird's own little studio but was reserved about his decision because he felt he was abandoning the organization that had lifted him from almost nothing and given him the capacity to realize his dreams. He really didn't want to leave all that behind because he loved what he was doing here.


Teach them how to fish!

Of course I was saddened to know that we will be "losing" not only one of our youth capacities, but also a great kid who means a lot for other kids here at Hummingbird, but at the same time I shared this optimistic fisherman's hopes for a bigger catch. I told Célio how happy I was to hear his wonderful news and to know that we had eventually managed to teach him how to fish.

Hopefully, he will not forget where he learnt how to.....

My future is at risk...

My future is at risk...
Originally uploaded by carf.

Please don’t let your actions today jeopardize my tomorrow...

Let Amazon live: A Global Priority.

The Amazon is not only the world’s largest tropical rain forest, its stock of biodiversity goes unrivalled in the entire planet, with various animal and plant species still waiting to be discovered.

It is also the place where 20 million people have their homes.

Therefore, any solutions serving the Amazon need primarily, to be economically and environmentally viable ones.

Between August/2003 and August/2004, the annual rate of deforestation in the Amazon – was an alarming 26.130 km2 – the second largest in history and equivilent to more than 8.600 football pitches per day. According to estimates by the National Institute of Space Research (Inpe), one year’s destruction of the planet’s most bio-diverse forest was equivalent to the entire area of the State of Sergipe and slightly less than the whole of Belgium.

During the last three years, deforestation of the Amazon has stayed above the level of 23.000 km2, a higher number than during the Military dictatorship.

The protection of the Amazon rain forest and the search for satisfactory solutions that can help towards a more positive development of the region is a Global priority for Greenpeace.

- Text freely translated from: www.greenpeace.org.br/amazonia/

NB! This is not an indigenous warrior from the Amazon, but 11-year old Jefferson, one of our conscious young community warriors from the AfroBreak dance group during one of their presentations. See AfroBreak’s Blog.

In Portuguese – em português.

Amazônia viva: Prioridade global

A Amazônia não é apenas a maior floresta tropical do mundo, mas um estoque de biodiversidade sem igual em todo o planeta, com várias espécies animais e vegetais ainda desconhecidas.

É também o local escolhido por 20 milhões de pessoas para viver.

Portanto, qualquer solução para a Amazônia precisa passar necessariamente pela busca por soluções economicamente e ecologicamente viáveis.

A taxa anual de desmatamento na Amazônia Legal no período agosto/2003-agosto/2004 - alarmantes 26.130 km2 – foi a segunda maior da história e equivale a mais de 8,6 mil campos de futebol por dia. De acordo com estimativas do Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (Inpe), a destruição em apenas um ano da floresta com a maior biodiversidade do planeta foi maior do que a área total do Estado de Sergipe e pouco menor do que a Bélgica.

Nos últimos três anos, os índices de desmatamento têm se mantido acima de 23 mil km2, número superior aos da época da ditadura militar.

A proteção da floresta e a busca por soluções para o desenvolvimento da região é uma prioridade global do Greenpeace.

- Texto: www.greenpeace.org.br/amazonia/

...and they call us the future?

...and they call us the future?
Originally uploaded by carf.

Expectations for positive social change are few and far between...

Whilst our governing politicians fight to defend their heavily criticized wage increases of more than 90%, Christmas and every other day of the year is a plight for survival for families such as this one in Brazil, where each day is merely just another one in a long line of monotonous days and where expectations for positive social change are few and far between.

For brothers and sisters like 12-year old Kennedy, 4-year old Vitor, 10-year old Gustavo and 5-year old Jessica, little has changed since they were born in absolute poverty, in the shanty where they still live, in a simple wooden shack, which floods with water each time it rains heavily, common at this time of the year. The older boys risk their lives playing with their kites alongside the main motorway that runs close-by their home, whilst observing the more than a million cars with privileged families leaving São Paulo and heading for the coast to enjoy a long Christmas weekend on the beach.


Their dignity as proud human beings was already stolen from them generations ago when their indigenous forefathers struggled to keep their land safe from the greedy hands of their white conquerors. Human egoism has robbed them of their natural balance with Mother Nature, to the point that they no longer remember which tribe their great grandparents belonged to.

With their father in prison these last three years, mother has her hands full trying to make ends meet. Putting rice and beans on the table each day is her main priority, so this year’s Christmas turkey from the Reaching for a Star Group was such a blessing that little Vitor couldn’t even wait for his mother to finish preparing it for the oven before he pulled away at some of the excess raw fat with his teeth and swallowed it all up in such a speed that I realized there would be no leftovers from this particular Christmas dinner.

Next year we will need to get Kennedy and Gustavo back into school as they gave up on it this year due to the long walking distance and the fact that neither can read nor write yet.

So whilst our politicians argue to defend their monthly pay rise of 91% to the astronomical value of 24.500 Brazilian reais (8.750 euros), in contrast to the 7,1% rise of the minimum worker’s wage, causing it to reach the incredible sum of 375 reais (134 euros) by April next year, - the father of these kids sits in prison, wondering how he’ll make ends meet when he gets out next year........

If the Brazilian society doesn’t wake up soon and begin preventing against the negative effects of all this human absurdity, what more can they expect from this father once he gets out of a failing prison system?
With six children to fend for under such difficult conditions, ...I ask you?

PS! If I remember correctly, it was armed robbery the last time he was sentenced…

....and the next time?