An Entire Planet of Stories Worth Telling
We dream to never turn away a child looking for an opportunity to succeed.
Sitting near the edge of Monte Santo, an International Child Care Ministries school thrives! 460 children attend our program and experience the highest quality education in the region! The school provides caring, equipped teachers and vital nutrition for its students. Thanks to the support of ICCM sponsors, tuition is always free and the school is always at capacity. Families will wait in line for a week just to ensure their child’s registration!
Communities like Monte Santo do not often provide parents with
the resources for providing healthy meals and a quality education. This problem was exacerbated during
the COVID-19 pandemic. Many families in places like Monte Santo could not provide adequate nutrition
at home. They could not provide the technology for their kids to attend remote learning. When schools
resumed in-person learning, you could imagine everyone’s excitement!
The school is flourishing and facing new challenges. They are feeding children living with food insecurity. They are empowering teenagers to attend university! And, they are training educators who will someday teach in public schools! However, without enough teachers or classrooms, the school will also turn many new families away.
We dream of expanding capacity and providing all-day education and nutrition to current and future students! We believe that the equipped children of Monte Santo will overcome poverty, isolation, and corruption. We work hard so that children of Monte Santo may be loved, safe, and developing.
On of the largest threats to a child in poverty are the drug cartels. Children have increasingly been recruited to transport and sell drugs. There was a time when older persons managed such jobs, but attrition from wars with rival factions and imprisonment of traffickers caused a shift in strategy. Children are less suspicious and threatening, able to sell and move drugs more easily. Also, children cannot be prosecuted or imprisoned in Brazil, making children living in poverty easy targets for this form of human trafficking. Children seek the safety and relationships of the gang, personal wealth, and money for the family.
Todo Mundo Feliz, which means “Everyone’s Happy,” is an ICCM partner; a child development center located at the edge of Tamarutaca, a low-income community controlled by drug-traffickers. Schools in Brazil operate on a ½ day schedule. Students attend during either a morning or afternoon session, and are free the other half of the day. When parents in poor communities must work all day, the freedom given to children make them more susceptible to gang recruitment. Todo Mundo Feliz stands in opposition to drug trafficking by caring for children during the time they are not attending school. Through education assistance, nutrition, and caring mentors, kids are safe and preparing for a brighter future, at no cost to the families in poverty that could not afford childcare otherwise.
Children in Brazil suffer at the hands of individuals with power and influence. Still, every snack and every hug for a child in São Paulo is another moment where a child is welcomed and safe. Every book and school bell is a reminder for families in Monte Santo that their kids will not be held back by political turmoil and gang influence.
With expanded capacity, we hope to never turn a child away.