A new day dawning in the favelas

When a mission team from Ingatestone Elim visited a charity ministering in a Brazilian shanty town or ‘favela’ they saw God’s love in action. Sophie Rickett told Chris Rolfe about the trip

In the favelas of Fortaleza, poverty is rife. Haphazard, overcrowded houses sit stacked on top of each other along potholed dirt streets. Drug lords rule in this high-crime area and behind closed doors, poorly educated children are often neglected or abandoned.

But amid these slums, there is an oasis for local children. In its compound, UK charity Univida partners with the Brazilian organisation Children of Brazil for Christ (CBC) to offer Christian education and life skills in a bid to break the poverty cycle.

“In Brazil, the government only provides half a day’s education for school-aged children. So kids in the slums only go to school for four hours a day and aren’t getting the best of educations,” explains Sophie Rickett, who recently went on a short-term mission trip with a team from Ingatestone Elim to support Univida.

In an area where up to 90 per cent of children and young people live in poverty – with poor sanitation, gang violence, unemployment and abuse – many drop out of school early with no qualifications for work and unable to provide for their families.

“Univida is trying to stop this by providing the other half day of education,” says Sophie. “Children go to school in the morning and to CBC in the afternoon, or vice versa, which massively supports them through the education system.”

Children are taught subjects like maths, Portuguese and literature and get help with their homework, but they also learn life skills and how to have value and self-worth. There’s space to run around and simply be children too.

A Future and a Hope

“As they do this, Univida shares the heart of Christ. They show the children they are loved and valued, and that the situation they’re in now is not how they have to stay. They can have a future and a hope.

“When we arrived, even though it was dark, you could see the climbing frame and imagine the freedom the children feel away from the favelas where there is no open space or grass.”

Univida’s compound includes a large, safe, walled outdoor chapel space where children learn, eat, play and attend services. Sophie explains, however, that finances are tight, and first priority must be given to teachers’ salaries and food to keep this work running. This means Univida needs help with essential maintenance and the upkeep of its facility, and this is where Ingatestone’s ten-day trip last October came in.

“Marc and Ruth Marques who founded the charity came to our church to tell us about their work,” says Sophie. “When we heard how we could help by painting and decorating their buildings, we started planning our trip.”

Over the course of a year a nine-strong team was assembled and fundraising activities were held to raise the £6,000 needed to cover the trip and building materials. A team of former CBC students was employed to sand and prepare the chapel before the Ingatestone team arrived.

Bright Colours Everywhere

“When we got there, our job was to redecorate the chapel space and fill it with colour,” says Sophie. “We painted bright colours around all the walls and pillars and wrote motivational words like ‘hope’, ‘confidence’ and ‘love’ in Portuguese along the walls to inspire the children.

“We didn’t know their language, but God does, so we took our rollers and paint, poured our faith into what we were doing and committed it to him.”

The team also painted the 20-foot high walls around the compound that protect the children from outsiders looking in. “We painted them in bright colours from top to bottom to make it feel more childlike. We did an awful lot of painting!”

Several things struck Sophie and the team during their time in Fortaleza. One was the incredible contrasts in wealth just minutes apart.

“The favelas were mind-blowing. In the UK we complain about little potholes, bits of litter or if one house looks out of place. There, the whole place is built on top of everything, there are no solid roads and there is rubbish everywhere. It’s just five minutes from a designer high street and huge skyscrapers where the wealthy live – it’s a shocking contrast that you don’t see in the UK.”

God at the Centre

Another thing was the presence of the Holy Spirit in the compound.

“God was at the centre of everything,” says Sophie. “At the beginning of each lesson there was a devotional, there were Scripture verses everywhere and the songs in music lessons were faith-based. They also had beautiful chapel services.”

The team was particularly moved during “Super Saturday” – part of a national children’s festival in Brazil – to see how the children were taught to think of others too. Amid dressing up in bright-coloured clothes and competing in sports day, Marc took time to reflect with the children that many others do not have the chance to have fun like this.

“He taught them that other children have needs too and that they can help and be mindful of others. It was beautifully done.”

A lasting impression, Sophie says, was the love the teachers showed the children and the love the children showed back, because they felt safe.

“It’s such a holistic approach because they help with physical needs but also support the children to live better lives and teach them to depend on God rather than charity.

“It counters what they see in a society where children aren’t valued but are forced to grow up and scrape a living. The whole thing is teaching them how loved and precious they are to God.”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.