Introduction of our teacher Tatiana
It is time to present you our teachers, the real stars of Estrela! The special women, who teach our students what public schools fail to do. They make Estrela the special and successful NGO it is nowadays. Their work in difficult circumstances, deserves all our respect!

In this newsletter we highlight Tatiana
Tatiana has been working at Estrela since 2014. With unbridled energy, she aims to teach the older students everything they haven’t been taught at their public school. This includes Portuguese, mathematics, geography and history. Social skills are also part of her curriculum, as many parents fail to teach this. As well, Tati is a qualified social worker. She has guided many parents/care takers to the right authorities to help parents solving problems, they were unable to themselves. Hopefully we will be able to present Tati personally on our annual fundraiser event in 2020 in Amsterdam.

As well, Tatiana in to mother to two adopted children, Jamily and Vitor, both 15. Jamily is South American lightweight judo champion and Vítor is also very talented. Tatiana and her husband Aurimar make every effort to pay for their children's journeys throughout Brazil and Latin America, because the Brazilian federation won’t contribute until chances are considerably high Jamily and Vitor will classify for the 2024 Olympic Games.

The successes
Estrela da Favela concluded her seventh year! Now, at the start of the big summer holiday, we are pleasantly looking back on the past school year: by everyone in the favela, Estrela da Favela is a respected project and the results of our students are excellent! All students have passed the year, five will go to high school and one to a technical school; a milestone in the favela. Three former students are accepted to university, one of which is currently a volunteer at Estrela; even a bigger milestone! Next year, eight students are scheduled to get preparation for higher education entrance-exams.

Activities
Our amazing, local teachers raise and alphabetize 70 young children aged 4 to 9. In addition, 40 teenagers make the final steps to higher education or a decent job.
We are holding many meetings with parents to show how they can support their children and to explain that education, contrary to what many think, is important.

Every day a healthy and nutritious meal is prepared for the students, because studying on an empty stomach is unacceptable. Football and music lessons are also part of the curriculum. On our recent Christmas event, we were treated with a beautiful flute performance. For next year, we are scheduling many more instrument classes.

Problems
Brazil, and in particular the city of Rio de Janeiro suffers from a severe economic and political crisis. The current government, in power since the beginning of 2019, is doing everything to diminish the current education. The education budget got cut by 35% and plans exist to set up schools in the favelas run by the military. This Belgian article aptly describes the current situation. Unfortunately, the article shows that projects like Estrela are more important than ever, as we shouldn’t expect any help from Brazil. That is why we desperately need help from the rest of the world and why we humbly will ask for a fixed monthly or annually, large or small contribution.

You can donate via our site and help us to continue “forever".

We greatly thank everyone who helps us in this. OBRIGADO!

We wish you all a very healthy and sparkling 2020!

Edwin Roodenburg and team Estrela da Favela