Construction Update December 25th

As a Christmas gift to our sponsors, we gladly announce that our new building is at its final stage. We visited the site on the 23rd. The new room has received the floor tiles and the walls have been painted with a light beige colour. The toilets received water plumbing. The external walls of the new building have been painted. The floor of the new covered patio has been leveled. And the men are willing to work this week, right after Christmas!

Graduation day

Last Saturday (december 15), the kids celebrated Christmas and graduation. Check the pictures, they show their happiness and how special this school is. Many of the donators that help maintainig the schools are also in the pictures. There is a special thanks to them in the last slide, and that includes everyone that is taking part on this project of building the new room!

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Construction Update December 16

The area in front of the new classroom is now covered, and the walls are ready to be painted! This covered area was a change on the original scope, suggested by a Brazilian couple who visited the school two weeks ago and decided to donate the material to cover a larger area. With this improvement, our schedule is a bit behind, but the benefit is a huge covered patio for a play area during the rainny season. The donations so far will be practically enough for the finishings of this new area. Next week, before Christmas, the men will start painting the walls and applying tiles on the bathrooms and lavatories. 

Great kindness from Italy, Brasil, Germany...

Ciao, amici d'Italia! Grazie per la vostra contribuzione. Thank you. Obrigada! Your contribution will surely help us finish our new classroom! Aos amigos do Brasil, especiais agradecimentos à galera do Bacen que tem nos apoiado nesta empreitada. A grana de vocês se junta a este bolinho e poderemos terminar nossa salinha. Finally, lots of thanks to our friends from Germany, who took active part on the so fair book fair and donated money to our new classroom. We are very very sure that every brick on these walls will play a wonderful role in all these kids' lives. Each brick will never be just another brick on these walls, but everybody's bricks on these walls. And yes: we do need more education!

A Fair Book Fair

The Better World Club friends, from Eumetsat, gave a great push this week. A nice book fair was organized to raise money for the project. Click to read more: http://www.betterworldclub.org/

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, a number of Brazilian friends started to collaborate with our project. It feels like everybody is so connected with this cause, that we now believe the children will gain a better quality environment.

Thank you, people from Europe! Obrigada, galera do Brasil! Vamos terminar nossa obra!

Project update December 9

Today we have good news: the roof is ready, and the walls are being prepared for the tiles. A group of Brazilian volunteers has visited the site during the week and decided to make a change in scope, donating pillars to lift the veranda's roof and cover the patio in front of the new room, not just a veranda as planned. Unfortunatelly, we still need money to finish this, and we also decided to improve the conditions of the draining of the existing ceiling (older building), which is fragile and improvised.

Many many thanks to our friends in Germany who donated by giving and buying books at the Eumetsat book fair this week. Their money will help us pay part of the labour. We are looking forward to receive more donations from our Brazilian friends, so that we can give a last Chrismas push on this project, and finish the room and the bathrooms before Christmas!

Hoje tivemos boas novas: o telhado está pronto, bem como o reboco das paredes internas do banheiro e da sala. Um grupo de voluntários visitou a obra durante a semana, e sugeriu uma alteração no escopo do projeto: em vez de uma pequena varanda, cobrir todo o vão em frente à sala até a construção existente, para fazer um grande pátio coberto. Foram lá e doaram esses pilares de ferro que são mostrados em primeiro plano, na primeira foto. O espaço a ser coberto pode ser visto na penúltima imagem. Vamos precisar de ajuda para as telhas e o contrapiso. Também verificamos que a cobertura existente carece de um sistema adequado de drenagem de águas pluviais, como se vê na última foto. Por isso, e para finalizarmos nossa obra com qualidade, estamos em campanha aqui no Brasil. Os amigos da Europa se mobilizaram num bazar, e arrecadaram fundos para a mão de obra da próxima semana e mais metade da seguinte. Vamos nos unir para dar este presente de Natal à nossa querida escolinha?