“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi
In the city of Carmo da Cachoeira, located in the State of Minas Gerais, in the Southeastern region of Brazil, there is a building that, under the name of Unit Art Education, includes two projects for the integral formation of kids. The first with the same name of the place, Art Education, develops extra-curricular activities, a kind of informal extra shift.
The second project developed by the Tibetan Park School, which, besides complying with the academic content demanded by the educational system of the country, unfolds the concept of live education. This place with its two areas is part of the educational sector of House of Light on the Hill, affiliated with Fraternidade – International Humanitarian Federation, and both, as a reference today concerning children education, have many requests of students that they cannot accept due to the lack of volunteers specialized in complementary areas and pedagogue volunteers.
Both projects offer free teaching, sustaining themselves on donations and on the voluntary exercise of professionals and specialists supported by family members of some children.
“In nearly seven years that I have coordinated this area, I have seen the positive transformation of some kids and their families, and even in us, who are guides in this stage of their learning. Our work is carried out with love, this is our main formula; with more collaborators we could support more children and more families”, comments Maria Helena de Paiva, coordinator of Art and Education.
“We need more pedagogues, to attend the ever-increasing demand of seats, our wish is to attend all children who need, and be able to expand goals, always trying to maintain the individualized attention that has characterized us, sustained on a spiritual basis”, explains Luciana Guimarães, the coordinator general of the Tibetan Park School.
Art Education
This sector develops activities both in the morning and in the afternoon, as an informal extra-curricular shift, as it is not subject to the schedule of any specific school, not even to the schedule of the school that works in the same building, while receives children from this and from any other school. Its activities are not in the form of compulsory classes, but are rather lovingly guided around free workshops that allow an integral learning.
Maria Helena de Paiva highlights the following: “Art Education is open to any child that wants to participate”, and, while she observes with attention photos of students in various activities, she adds, “the main goal is to contribute for their integral formation, from the free time they have in extra-class hours, thinking in “being”, rather than in “having” or “knowing”.
As a Project, it offers service in reinforcement of classes on Mathematics, English, among other subjects. It also attends children with motor and hearing impairment, but is strength lies in the complementary activities it imparts, some under the form of workshops and others as free classes (giving the opportunity for the kid to attend as many times they want and to express freely): music, conversation rounds, reports of experience, story-telling, spontaneous drawing, walking classes, educational films, etc.
Tibetan Park School
Complying with the curricular demand of the educational system of the country, which seeks to develop the intellectual abilities of the students in a continuous, permanent and participative process, the Tibetan Park School unfolds its actions under the concept of a live school, and thus, stepping out of the archetype of conventional school, manages to foster in its activities the interchange and movement typical of life itself, facilitating the contact of the student with their inner being. In this space created, the student develops harmoniously and coherently all and each one of their dimensions (spiritual, ethical, cognitive, affective, and social). For this, activities are organized for them in which they are invited to a contact with the Kingdoms of Nature, with the Cosmos, sustained by a daily practice of spiritual values.
While the school is allowed to go until the ninth year, nowadays, due to the lack of other pedagogues and teachers, it responsibly functions from the kindergarten to the second year. It opens new years with the students that pass to another level, and thus they expect to open the third year soon.
In parallel, they have begun a social work with four children of a Home for children in the city of Carmo da Cachoeira, with extra-curricular activities, a work that, to the extent that is possible, they will continue and expand.
Volunteer!
Both sectors, Art Education, and the Tibetan Park School, need voluntary personnel to expand its activities, always maintaining the quality of education that is imparted and individualized attention.
Luciana Guimaraes and Maria Helena de Paiva, on behalf of the Institution, extend an invitation to open one’s heart, to motivate to integrate them, and consider that with experience in children education or newly graduated, it will always be an opportunity to grow.
If you want to be part of this initiative, get in touch:
Art Education: (+55) (35) 99914-7427
Tibetan Park School: (+55) (35) 99975-7228
House of Light on the Hill: (+55) (35) 3225-1223
secretaria@casaluzdacolina.org.br