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Task Brasil - The Abandoned
Street Kids of Brazil Trust
Helping street children… to
help themselves!
IN
THIS ISSUE
What’s coming up…
Friday 29th February – 2nd March – One Life Live, Olympia, London
Sunday 13th April – Flora London Marathon
Saturday 14th June – Sunday 29th June – Edinburgh World Justice Festival
Friday 20th June – Sunday 29th June – Ecotour, Brazil - 'Path construction
in the forest'
Saturday 28th June – Sunday 29th June – Carnival de Cuba, London
Sunday 29th June
– Rio de Janeiro Marathon
Sunday 20th July - BUPA Great Capital Run, Hyde Park, London - contact us
to secure a place - we have a limited number still available
Friday 25th July – Sunday 27th July – WOMAD, Charlton Park, UK
Monday 25th August – 29th August – Farming experience, Brazil - Daily
upkeep of farm for example harvesting, animal treatment and feeding,
maintenance of vegetable garden, plantations and fences etc
Friday 17th October – Sunday 26th October – Ecotour, Brazil - 'Tree
planting'
For more information on any of the forthcoming events, please contact us
at info@taskbrasil.org.uk
The children
We are extremely happy to inform you that a number of children at Casa
Jimmy have been reintegrated and/or adopted.
Brother and sister Julia (3 years old) and Christian (5 years old) arrived
at Casa Jimmy in January for a brief stay. Little Christian had to spend a
short time in hospital but has now recovered. The judge however decided that
the children should be transferred to a shelter closer to where the family with
whom they will be reintegrated lives.
A new home (yet to be named) in partnership with Homeless Child NGO has
been under construction since Nov 2007. It will be an extension to Casa Jimmy for
6 to 11 year olds and will provide more much needed space for the children,
The teenage mothers
Developing a specifically dedicated building for Casa Charlotte is very
important, since the home will cater to the specific needs of the teenage
mothers, which cannot be met as effectively while they remain in Casa Jimmy.
Your support and donations are crucial to the teenage mothers. After a long
time searching for a suitable property, Task Brasil, with donations from Hunter
Hall, Accenture and Ballymore, bought Casa Charlotte,
located opposite Casa Roger Turner, at Christmas time. There is much work to be
done on the building however, before the girls can move in, beginning with
repairs to the leaky roof. Show your support to the girls and donate now!
Diane (15 years old) with her son Thiago, has happily been reintegrated with her mother in Sao
Paulo.
Jocilene with 2 year old daughter Lorrany briefly left
to live with her father but returned to Casa Jimmy a few days later.
The teenage boys
Rodrigo, the youngest boy at Epsom College Farm at 9 years old, has been
transferred to a shelter in Rio in preparation for international adoption.
Leonardo (12 years old) arrived on the farm in December. We are in the
process of transferring Rafael and Roberto (brothers) and Thiago
from Casa Roger Turner to the farm. The 3 of them have spent the school
holidays on the farm and we are waiting for the juvenile judge's decision.
There are 9 boys currently living at Casa Roger Turner. Some of them have
spent the school holidays with their families, as part of the reintegration
process.
Events & Donations
Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin's rock icon, generously donated tickets to the
hugely successful Led Zeppelin reunion concert at London's O2 Arena in December
last year. His donation enabled us to raise much needed funds for Task Brasil's projects.
Brazilian Led Zeppelin tribute band, Black Dogs, performed on 21st
December. The fans donated 180 kg of food to Task Brasil. More food has been
received from the Fundição Progresso (100 kg) and Rio
Banco Alimentos (50 kg).
The record was beaten by Doctor Renato and his
veterinary clinic whose clients donated 330 kg of food on the 9th January. Such
donations are extremely important, since Task Brasil feeds a number of hungry
mouths!
A donation of valuable medical supplies was received from the American
Benevolent Healthcare Foundation and its subsidiary Project Cure, to be shared
with another organisation in need.
Britannia Language School has been extremely generous in its support of
Task Brasil, giving many presents to the children and teenagers at Christmas.
On the 6th December, Philippe our fundraiser in Brazil and Roberto, a teenager
from Casa Roger Turner, were invited to the End of Year party to receive a
donation of R$1,764. On the 25th December, a representative from Britannia
visited Casa Jimmy and brought donations of 11 video tape recorders, 5 DVD
players, a radio tape recorder and a printer. A visit to Casa Roger Turner and
more fundraising activities will be organised during the year.
Cultura Inglesa, which runs English language schools in
Rio, has offered Task Brasil 15 scholarship places for the teenagers or staff
of Task Brasil to learn English. We are extremely grateful for this kind
donation, since education is key to providing the
children with a more promising future.
Philippe presented Task Brasil projects to students at the International
School in Barra da Tijuca
in Rio and received donations of clothes, food and cleaning products. The talk
was organised by our committed supporters Sherita and
Maj-Britt. In preparation for the new school year
that begins after Carnival in February, students will be donating school
materials to our teenagers.
Thanks also to the members of the Dream Can Be charity who raised over R$10,000 for us in 2007.
Run the Rio Marathon!
After the challenging 26 miles through Brazil’s magical city, enjoy the
beach, the vibrant night life and the beautiful sites of Rio! Register
online until 31st May and check out the official
website
Registration before 31st March costs R$100 and after that date will cost
R$120.
Visits
At Christmas time we received many visits from supporters bearing presents
and donations for the homes, including Mrs Julie Anderson, the American Defense Attaché's wife, with two of her friends, and
representatives from the Igreja Messianica
in Santa Teresa. Mrs Drew, who is painting a mural in Casa Jimmy babies' room,
and her daughter, also paid a visit to Casa Jimmy. A religious community run by
Mrs Renée Murdoch and her husband generously donated new clothes to the teenage
boys at Casa Roger Turner, Forest House and the teenage girls at Casa Jimmy. Mr
Gouvêa Vieira's solicitor company and staff, who have
for many years shown loyal support to Task Brasil helping in particular with
legal issues, also made a donation of more than R$ 1,520 for a set of clothes, shoes and an
educational toy for each one of our Casa Jimmy's children at Christmas.
Father Christmas was so busy this year that he had to visit Casa Jimmy
early, bringing presents on the 5th December. Everyone was extremely excited,
especially the youngest ones.
Emilia and David, two Task Brasil volunteers, brought their parents to
visit Casa Jimmy.
Jenny Byers from the British and Commonwealth Society is planning a visit
to Epsom College Farm to open the new pig house and donate money towards buying
the pigs. The society is a regular donor of Task Brasil, giving R$150 a month.
We were very pleased to receive Mr William Salomon, whose company Wilson
Sons donates regularly and most recently donated R$ 40,000 (£11,000).
Ken and Vinicius who participated in an Ecotour
last year and are now sponsoring a child, visited the projects in February.
They also donated school materials for the boys at the farm.
Volunteers
Daniel from the UK has come to the end of his time volunteering at Casa
Jimmy and Helen, also from the UK, has just begun her volunteer placement. She
hopes to run artistic activities with the children. We are pleased that Andrea,
who spent 12 months volunteering at the projects, is to return to Task Brasil
for another 12 months at least, following a period of training in Ireland with Viatores Christi. The organisation will be partially
financing Andrea's volunteer placement with Task Brasil. Ceri
will begin her placement in Brazil in April and we look forward to her arrival.
In London
One Life Live
Task Brasil will be exhibiting at the One Life Live three day event at
Olympia in London, between Friday 29th February and 2nd March. Come and join us
on stand G8! We have a limited number of free tickets, worth £15, so contact us
for your free ticket before they run out!
London Marathon
Eleven courageous athletes will be running for Task Brasil in April’s
London Flora Marathon this year, amongst which five are from AT&T. Each one
has pledged to raise at least £1,000, but let’s hope they manage to beat last
year’s record of Manoj Jangra
raising over £4,000!
Come and support the runners on Sunday 13th April! Please contact us if
you can meet us and the runners after 2.30pm on the day of the marathon to
celebrate their successes. We plan to meet in the Red Lion pub off Pall Mall,
SW1Y 6PP, but this is still to be confirmed.
Christmas Party 2007
We enjoyed a busy December with the Task Brasil 2007 Christmas Party that
was held at trendy London Brazilian club, Guanabara.
Guests bought reams of raffle tickets for a chance to win one of the much
sought after prizes. The following fortunate guests were the winners:
Pair of British Airways tickets
to Europe or the USA: Nick McBride
Signed Led Zeppelin album Mothership: Camilla Ashenhurst
Romantic dinner cooked in your
home by professional chef: Shelly Say
Pair of tickets for the Oxford vs Cambridge rugby match: Richard Doman
Pair of tickets for Guanabara’s New Year’s Eve party: Neil Grant
Most importantly the evening enabled us to raise much needed funds for
Task Brasil to continue its crucial work with street children. Thank you to
everyone who supported the evening!
Discovering Latin American Film
Festival
London hosted the 6th Discovering Latin American Film Festival in November
and December and Task Brasil was the chosen charity to receive the proceeds.
Directors and actors flew to Europe to present their films and journalists closely
followed the ten days packed with films. On the Task Brasil Gala evening,
Portia presented Task Brasil’s work to a full
audience and volunteers ran stalls at selected screenings.
Office News
In September Task Brasil will be moving offices, since the current
building is to be demolished by Southwark council. We are looking for new
offices measuring about 90 metres squared, so please contact us if you know of
a possible space to rent.
Sani Ittoo has joined the UK office as our part-time
administrative assistant to replace Haddy Jadama who has left to pursue her studies.
In Brazil, Queila and Christiane
have joined the management team as Senior Social Worker and Projects Leader
respectively.
Donate now!
Sponsor
a child and receive updates on the child's development.
Donate
now, set up a standing order or leave a
legacy.
Alternatively you could organise
your own fundraising event. Supporters have raised money by organising a
fashion show, run stalls and rowed in the London Great River Race to name but a
few fundraising activities. For more details and ideas go to our web page
If you are a UK taxpayer your donation can be worth an additional 28% to
Task Brasil, making your gift go further. Click here to
download the Gift Aid form print out and complete and send to us at Task Brasil,
PO Box 4901, London SE16 3PP.
Task Brasil
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