CITY FOR THE CULTURES OF PEACE
CITÉ DES CULTURES DE LA PAIX
CITÉ DER FRIEDENSKULTUREN

www.paix-culture.org
www.peace-culture.org

 

COLLECTIVE LONG-TERM RESEARCH
PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS

PROJETS ET PROGRAMMES
COLLECTIFS DE RECHERCHE À LONG-TERME

KOLLEKTIVE LANGFRISTIGE
FORSCHUNGSPROJEKTE UND PROGRAMME

 

THEMES -- THÈMES -- THEMEN


COEXISTENCE STUDIES          
MARGINALIZATION AND EXCLUSION
GENOCIDE AND SHOAH STUDIES   
INTER- AND INTRA-DISCIPLINARY STUDIES  
CHILDREN AND YOUTH AT RISK
EUROPE IN ITS GLOBAL DYNAMICS
CARIBBEAN AND LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES              
AFRICA IN ITS GLOBAL DYNAMICS

 


COEXISTENCE STUDIES

Global Cities, Project Director Amy Colin (USA) in collaboration with colleagues from the Canada and the United States.

MARGINALIZATION AND EXCLUSION
LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES 

LES DISCOURS ÉCONOMIQUES TRANSNATIONAUX ET LA MONDALISATION DANS LES MÉDIAS ET LES TEXTES DE VULGARISATION AU CANADA EN COMPARAISON AVEC L'AMÉRIQUE LATINE: DÉPLACEMENTS CULTURELS ET ECONOMIQUES. Director: Patrick Imbert (Canada). Senior Academic Team: Daniel Castillo-Durante (Canada), Amy Colin (USA), Adriana Rizzo (Argentine). This research program bringing together scholars from Canada, the United States, and Argentina has gained the financial support of the Canadian Government, INÉ. Collaboration with Universidad de Rio Cuarto (Argentina).

TEACHING THE TEACHERS: FIGHTING AGAINST INTOLERANCE, XENOPHOBIA, AND RACISM THROUGH EDUCATION AND LEARNING.  Director: Amy Colin (USA); international training and research project to be implemented in several different countries in cooperation with the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University and several international organization.



CHILDREN AND YOUTH AT RISK

STREET-CHILDREN AND ORPHANS in EASTERN EUROPE: NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT. Director: Nina Scribanu (USA) long-term project in cooperation with Georgetown Medical School, and the School of Medicine in Bucharest, Roumania, the Fulbright Commission, and several non-profit organizations. 

 STUDENTS TEACHING STREET CHILDREN, training program and fieldwork organized by the PROJETO UERÊ Foundation. President: Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

For more information about  Projeto UERÊ, see the web site of this important school which needs your support: www.projetouere.org.br

A MODEL SCHOOL FOR STREET CHILDREN AND CHILDREN AT RISK: 
Projeto UERÊ

“In 1980, influenced by my experiences in Africa, I began to work as a volunteer with groups of street children in the suburban “south zone” and the downtown of Rio de Janeiro. I decided to establish a ‘school’ without windows or doors on the street for some 200 ‘students.’  In 1993, a death squad of policemen cold-bloodedly assassinated seven children from one of my groups at night, while these kids were sleeping on the pavement. The atrocious murder came to be called the “Candelária Massacre” (named after the public square where the murder occurred; the square was these children’s ‘home’).

As I had to find a new place to teach the survivors, I opted for an area under a highway overpass in downtown Rio.  This became our first “classroom.” In the first year under the overpass, children from a nearby „favela“ [Portuguese name for shanty town] also attended my classes. During the subsequent five years, my school functioned in these most inadequate surroundings, receiving over 100 street children a day. In 1998, my “school on the streets,” as I initially called my endeavors, evolved into the Projeto UERÊ (Project UERÊ), a non - profit institution and organization. The same year, a house was purchased to serve as the UERÊ premise,” writes Yvonne Bezerra de Mello in her article “Street Children and Children at Risk,” forthcoming in Mariginalizations: Dynamics of Injustice and Discrimination, ed. A. Colin, Editions UNESCO.

Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, an artist of note and UNESCO Award Winner, established Projeto Uerê in order to help street children and other traumatized children at risk from the slums of Rio de Janeiro, by providing them education, food, medical care, and  shelter.  Yvonne Bezerra de Mello personally helped and rescued over 1500 children from the slums of Rio.

In 1998, with one little house, very little money and a ‘team’ of four dedicated and purposeful teachers, UERÊ opened its doors to 130 children.  Today, Projeto UERÊ attends daily 430 children with severe learning problems and disabilities caused by long-term exposure to violence. Since 1993, a total of 1020 children have received their education at Projeto UERÊ. Our teaching methodology proved to be successful. It helped re-habilitate children and return them to normal school life and curriculums,” underlines Yvonne Bezerra de Mello.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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