“Why are you telling us the story of Maria Clara? Why is it so special to you?” we asked Jozilda Pires, one of the educators of the Brazilian project Seeds of Peace that the Philanthropic Foundation Sidival Fila supports.
Maria Clara is a girl from a poor community in the State of Bahia, in north-eastern Brazil. Her family is unable to provide care and nutrition for her and her brothers. Jozilda Pires is touched when she thinks back to the frightened look on Maria Clara's face when she arrived at the "Seeds of Peace" Centre at the age of four.
"Being less is the key to everything. Many of the children who come to our Centre feel less. An idea that is rooted in you when you are so young that you grow up thinking it is normal. Because the normal is what you experience every day, what surrounds you, the actions you see repeated daily”.
Jozilda Pires told us about the after-school activities. She tells us about the study of accompaniment, dance, music, and computer classes. But what she most wants to tell us is: “Maria Clara was one of the girls who worked harder for the activities we organized for Black Awareness Day (in Portuguese: Dia da Consciência Negra, which is celebrated November the 20th, each year). Maria Clara today has rid herself of the sense of being less and looks to the future with confidence”.
Jozilda is grateful for the opportunity to belong to this project. For her, Seeds of Peace today is a special place where boys and girls, despite the difficulties of their social condition, develop a critical conscience and learn the values of mutual respect.
Every day, Seeds of Peace offers food and training to 150 boys and girls in need of help, who find the Project a point of reference to build a future of autonomy and freedom.
