New Building Purchased for Community Library and Activity Center
In January, our group sought out an adequate building to house our new Community Library and Activity Center (to be used as a multi-purpose room, office, and volunteer living space). We found a small, two-story house located in the area of the Valão that met our requirements and made arrangements to purchase it for R$25,000 (Brazilian reals), or about US $12,000. Although this was considerably above the projected amount, prices in the favela and the favorable conditions/location of the building convinced us to make the purchase. The first half of the payment was wired to Brazil in February. I will be wiring the second half next week and we should begin occupying the space by June 1st.
Fulbright Scholar Implements Library
Two Brothers board member and doctoral candidate Beth Letalien has received a Fulbright fellowship to implement the community reading room in our new building in conjunction with our organization. This experience will serve as her fieldwork for research toward her thesis in Information Science at the Unversity of Texas-Austin. Ms. Letalien arrived in February in Rocinha, where she will remain until December, 2006 as she carries out our project.
English Course Gains Donated Books and Syllabi
We have worked with Daniela Meyer, the Academic Superintendent of IBEU (Instituto Brasil Estados Unidos), to acquire books and syllabi for our English course. The books, provided by Cambridge University Press in Brazil, are the first we have used in the eight-year history of our English course. We are restructuring the course to emphasize quality over quantity and to avoid the repetitive nature of our past courses by adhering to modular programs. We also continue to offer French and Spanish classes.
Virtual Exchange Program
San Diego State University Professors Paul Sneed (Director of Luso-Brazilian Studies) and Jim Gerber (Director of the center for Latin American Studies) are setting up the Virtual Exchange Program. This project will link our Rocinha-based group with youth groups from low-income communities in San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico in a web-based dialogue taking place about the bi-monthly short films each group will produce. The project will teach youths in these teams technical skills in film editing, photography, and design, along with writing and analytical skills as they document the realities of their communities and engage each other inn discussions about their work.
Wharton International Volunteer Program Sends MBA Students for Consultation
Benjamin Gleason will lead a team of four MBA students of the Wharton school of the University of Pennsylvania to Rocinha in August to provide business consulting to Two Brothers’ staff and volunteers. The team will focus on areas of financial controls and business planning/budgeting.
Georgia State Students and Faculty Hold Carnival Fundraiser
On February 23rd, a carnival fundraiser party was thrown at the Compound in Atlanta. Anthropology professor Cassandra White worked with students McCalla Orso and Melonie Chapman to put on the event, which featured local DJs playing Brazilian music and a raffle of two round-trip tickets to Brazil (along with other prizes) Their hard work paid off and they broke the record for the most money ever raised at any single fundraiser for the Two Brothers Foundations, bringing in nearly $2,000! To see the tremendous job they did, visit their website at www.beijeanoite.com.
University of Michigan Students Hold Fundraiser
Nicolas Zapata and Andrés Carter of the Phi Iota Alpha Latino Fraternity, held a fundraiser party at U of M in late January, raising nearly $500 dollars. They also held an informational session on favelas in Brazil featuring a model of Rocinha (they are architecture students) and episodes of the successful television series Cidade dos Homens, from the creators of City of God.
Bossa Nova fundraiser at San Diego State University
The Center for Latin American Studies at SDSU is bringing musicians Ricardo Vogt and Leala Cyr, of Berklee College of Music in Boston, to San Diego State University to perform and give a talk on the differences between bossa nova and jazz. Afterward, the duo will hold a benefit concert for the Two Brothers Foundation at the Egyptian Tea Room coffee house.
UVa Student Wins Award to Make Film with Two Brothers
Calisha Myers, of the University of Virginia, has received the Harrison Undergraduate Research Award in support of her work on her student film No Goals, No Promises: Educating Afro-Brazilian Communities, to be filmed in collaboration with students and volunteers of the Two Brothers Foundation this summer.
Favela Studies Digital Media Project
The Two Brothers Foundation is currently working to develop a new digital media project with the Language Acquisition Resource center of San Diego State University. The project, called Favela Studies: Social Exclusion and Communities on Brazil’s Urban Periphery, features short films about Rocinha, including profiles of three young students of the Two Brothers Foundation.
Washington Ferreira Returns to Two Brothers
Washington Ferreira, our first administrative assistant (2003-2004), and who began studying English at the age of 13 with Two Brothers in 1998 in our first ever English class, returned in March as a coordinator. He will be working with our other coordinator, Rogério Pinto, to provide volunteer orientation and support, English language instruction, and administrative assistance.
Student Interns from San Diego State University
Harvey Spencer and Joel Goyette, students of the double-degree program between San Diego State University (SDSU) and the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) will be working as interns this summer at our new headquarters in Rocinha. Mr. Spencer will be responsible for the Rocinha component of the Virtual Exchange Program (see above). Mr. Goyette will be working on volunteer orientation and support protocols.
Financial Needs
As the result of the purchase of the new building, we currently have no funds in our account and must raise $1,900 to meet our current commitments for 2006 (supporting our projects in Rocinha with a stipend for one of the coordinators and to support the Escola Moranguinhos, our current site for classes). We will also need another $950 for the fist quarter 0f 2007 to get us to the next annual fundraising campaign. This totals $2,850.
In addition, we need to furnish, repaint, and eventually expand our new building. This we plan to in stages: first, we will buy tables, chairs, and bookshelves for the reading room; next we will outfit the office with a computer, phone line, desk and filing cabinet; then we will furnish the second floor as a volunteer living space for two people; and finally, we will add two additional floors to the site to serve as classrooms, and an activity area on top of the building. The projected costs of theses stages are:
1) Reading Room Set Up $500
2) Office Equipment $1000
3) Volunteer Living Space Set Up $500
4) Additional Floors and Activity Area: $2,500
Total Building Costs: $4,500
Costs through April 30th, 2007: $7,350
