Here in a shanty-town of Rio de Janeiro called Cidade de Deus ("City of God"), life for the 40,000 residents of is a daily challenge, as they are faced with a lack of jobs, medical attention and high food prices.Even more challenging is the plight of the physically- and mentally-challenged kids in the favela.
Thankfully, some local heroes founded a community center to provide education, nutritious food and a nurturing environment for these kids, providing them with the mental and physical stimuli they need to develop in a healthy manner. Cause & Affect traveled to this favela shanty-town (now well-known due to the highly-acclaimed 2003 film City of God) in order to provide material and financial support to this wonderfully-run project.
Laura Muniz helped found the Projeto Resgate ("Rescue Project")
over ten years ago and now receives financial support from the wonderful Dutch-Brazilian organization IBISS. As she explains, "Since most kids here come from single-parent homes, these physically- and mentally-challenged children are often locked into their homes when their mothers go off to work. We provide them with a healthy environment and thanks to our physical therapists and teachers trained in dealing with kids with their conditions, we are able to help the kids improve their condition and also help their parents understand and deal with their childrens' disabilities."
Cause & Affect arrived to discover that the facilities of the center were in need of a serious make-over, so with $730, we were able to re-paint the walls and purchase a wide variety of art supplies for the project. Thanks to Aspire Inspire, we also distributed 50 backpacks to the kids of the project and the adjoining pre-school.
With the help of donors like, you Cause & Affect is creating positive change in places like City of God. To help the cause, please donate on-line here.
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