“Who is the most important person inside this room?” asked capoeira instructor Daniel Vallejo. “Me!” yelled the group of children from Jalazone refugee camp in reply.
Bidna Capoeira launched new activities in the West Bank on Tuesday with support from the Brazilian Representative Office of Ramallah.
Self-expression through physical art
Eight hundred Palestinian children have taken part in these Afro-Brazilian sport and art form since March 2011.
Speaking to the children, Ligia Maria Scherer, Head of the Representative Office of Brazil to the Palestinian Authority said: “One of our aims is to promote freedom of expression and help you cope with the harsh realities of occupation.”
According to the principal of the UNRWA boys’ school, Ahmad Assi, since last semester, there has been improvement in behaviour and learning among students that have participated in capoeira. “We targeted hyperactive kids and immediately noticed a positive change.”
Benefiting the community
Capoeira’s benefits extend to instructors and parents. Vallejo, or Professor Arame as his students call him, has been training in the refugee camps for the last nine months. “The occupation prevents refugee children from expressing themselves properly. This is where capoeira comes in. Here, we are brothers. The children even come by my house on my days off asking to be trained.”
Amina, whose daughter has taken part, expressed her excitement about the programme: “My daughter is always talking about capoeira. She loves the activities and her instructor.”
Bidna Capoeira puts a great emphasis on the participation of children. In fact, the organisation’s name, “came from children in refugee camps on the Syrian/Iraqi border,” said Tarek Alsaleh, Bidna’s managing director.
Capoeira has been an effective tool for creating solidarity and harmony among participants. “We’re like a family that works and practices together. Even kids that used to fight with one another are now friends. There are rules and we learn to follow them,” said 13-year-old Muhammad Nasser.
The following interview was given to the Programa Inclusão (Inclusion Show), a show produced by the Senate TV and aired all over Brazil. Like the preceding ones, this interview is part of our TV Clipping and tackles the interplay of our two main programs: Learning From Brazilian Culture, and Brazil and Abroad. This one, however, also counts with statements from students and other instructors, as it approaches our interdisciplinary take over our program’s classes and mission. Feel free to comment and share this post with socially engaged counterparts. I’ll be happy to hear your thoughts about our programs and ways we have been working.
It’s been almost 40 days, two chicken-pocks, and tree trips since I last wrote. Sorry for such a long absence, but these days were quite hectic. I’ll make it up in the following weeks catching up with all these events and visits in chronological order. Whenever possible I’ll also upload videos and slide shows of these activities. This way I can make sure I won’t leave anything behind.
Abraço e muito obrigado à todos que escreveram e comentaram pedindo mais artigos!
Eurico
In my chat with Solange
Transcript: Programa Inclusão (TV Show Inclusion)
Opening text with Reporter Solange Calmon:
Voluntary work is a growing trend in Brazil. It is capable of promoting great changes, based on the initiatives of people that are trying to retribute part of what they have accomplished in their professional and personal lives.
There is no age limit for being a volunteer, one must only believe that the meaning of life is in serving the other, uncross the arms and get to work, saving a few hours of the day or of the week, contributing, conquering trust and receiving as payment a beautiful smile.
In the Programa Inclusão (Inclusion Show) we will show common people helping to rescue their country’s culture; groups of volunteers in action on the streets, in the middle of the night, to put an end to the hunger of boys and girls in risk situations. People of good will that contribute to well being of all, examples that confirm: volunteer work is good for those who benefit from it and for those who are a part in it.
A Non Governmental Organization decided to bet in Capoeira to develop a project that stimulates cultural identity. The Students are boys and girls in social risk situation. The work is coordinated by a Physical Education teacher and capoeirista from Brasília.
To give back to those children and adolescents the joy and the pleasure that he feels when practising Capoeira – this is the desire of the President of the Cordão de Ouro Association in Brasília, Eurico Neto; who has been developing over the last 4 years a project for social inclusion of boys and girls in risk situation. He offers to those children the opportunity of having a better future, while listening to the sound of the atabaque, berimbau and a lot of ginga. Eurico promotes art and culture, the rituals and the identity of the Brazilian people.
Twice a week the children have history and citizenship classes along with physical activities. The boys and girls have the opportunity of integrating with capoeiristas from other parts of the world.
Eurico Neto:
We promote many exchange events within Brazil and with foreign countries. So they have classes with teachers from all over Brazil and contact with capoeira students from many parts of the world, who speak other languages. They have contact with a universe greater than capoeira, a universe of music and history.
Wesley Borges (15 years old student):
People that come from the United States, for example. We chat a bit, they speak English, but there’s always someone to translate. Then we can talk.
Solange Calmon:
Mestre Eurico decided to bet on the potentials of each on of these boys and girls living in the Aldeia SOS shelter. In order to implement the project he counts on the help of other Capoeira professionals.
Professor Ely Alves da Silva:
These children have a life experience that we don’t have. Many are orphans, some have parents that come to visit on the weekends. This bond strengthened in training and in extra activities allows the exchange of experiences.
We try to pass virtues to them so that they can become good people, having good behavior inside and outside Capoeira. With this work we go beyond the teachings of Capoeira to educate good citizens.
Solange Calmon:
In addition to the capoeira classes, the children get other lessons.
Erica Oliveira – 8 years old student:
I learned to be more polite, to be nicer to people and to have more education too.
Felipe – 12 years old student:
I found more friends and I am loosing my shyness.
Solange Calmon:
How long have you been practicing capoeira?
Felipe – student (12 year old):
For a year and a month, more or less.
Eurico Neto:
We began to develop with them the matter of cultural identity and the history of the country. Through that we manage to improve their self-esteem, we create an interest in the activity that we practice and from this relatively smaller universe, which is capoeira, with its rituals and activities, we transcend to a larger universe of teachings for the day-to-day life.
Adriano Santana (13 years old student)
Capoeira brought me many good things. I began as if it were a sport and I ended up liking it.
Solange Calmon:
But there is one prerequisite for these little fellows in order for them to participate in the Capoeira classes. All students must be enrolled in the public schools system.
Eurico Neto:
All of them live in the Aldeia SOS, a third sector shelter that takes care of children and promotes social inclusion through the homes. They promote education through social inclusion. This was the first place in which we started our projects.
Solange Calmon:
The idea of the project is to create more vacancies. But for that new partners and the help of volunteers are needed.
Eurico Neto:
We have to thank the support of the Workers Association of the Federal Senate and of the Federal District’s Fund for Culture Support. We also leave our web-site so that people can have more contact with our work and in case any new sponsors or supporters want to reach us. www.4capoeirathoughts.com
Solange Calmon:
The idea of the Group is to increase the number of children being assisted. After all, the experience has pleased not only the Master but also the students.
Wesley Borges:
I have more will to practice Capoeira, more and more… until I become a professional. Who knows?!
Robson Araújo:
This has been a very rich experience for us, in our personal relations, in the relationship that we have with these children, we’ve managed to become friends.
Solange Calmon:
Is this good for both sides?
Robson Araújo:
Yes. It is good for both sides, for sure!
Rafael da Silva:
I am happier practising capoeira.
It’s been a couple of weeks since I last wrote. Much have happened since and I have plenty to share. Ely, a very old friend and coordinator of our school here in Brasília is involved in a Capoeira Angola movement that brings diverse lineages together in fortnightly street Rodas. Mestre Chocolate and Mestre King, from Salvador (Bahia) and São Carlos (São Paulo) respectively, welcomed Ely and took him as partner in the movement. Strong for a few years, their movement is now going through a phase of adaptation, since some of the other participant schools are currently re-structuring their own activities and because of that being more reserved for a while. This post shares some of my views and participation in their Rodas and meetings over the last few weeks. Continue reading →
“Who is the most important person inside this room?” asked capoeira instructor Daniel Vallejo. “Me!” yelled the group of children from Jalazone refugee camp in reply.
Speaking to the children, Ligia Maria Scherer, Head of the Representative Office of Brazil to the Palestinian Authority said: “One of our aims is to promote freedom of expression and help you cope with the harsh realities of occupation.”
