I have recently become involved with a Christian charity/organisation called EAB (Evangelical Action Brazil). They work in the North East of Brasil, based in the town of Patos. Their main activities, as stated in their website is the following:
As well as a full range of activities traditionally regarded as ‘spiritual’ (church planting, evangelism, etc), EAB’s integrated approach means it is active across a vast range of social and community projects. Whilst EAB will always respond to urgent need (for example, relief work during epidemics) its ongoing work is geared to long-term, selfsustaining solutions, preferring projects such as job creation schemes or reinforcement education which give some of the poor of Northeastern Brazil a genuine perception of God’s love, the opportunity to sustain a higher quality of life, and retain personal dignity.
One of their projects, and the one I have just bcome part of, is called Action Child. There are many children in the North East of Brazil whose parents cannot afford for their children to attend school, to have medical and dental care and sometimes they cannot even afford to feed them enough.
Action Child is a project whereby schools are set up in the various towns around the Northeast. Many of the children who attend the schools are then sponsored by people, mainly from the UK, by paying £15 a month. What this money allows is for every school to have adequately trained, paid and legally registered staff.
Each child has a nourishing meal every day.
Back-up medical and dental care is provided when needed.
The children receive spiritual guidance in a loving Christian environment.
Poor families can benefit from social worker support.
Each child has a nourishing meal every day.
Back-up medical and dental care is provided when needed.
The children receive spiritual guidance in a loving Christian environment.
Poor families can benefit from social worker support.
They are an amazing organisation and have recently had a massive increase in the number of children sponsored, which is great! If I've got my fact straight, they have increased from about 53 sponsored children to about 150 in about 18 months. They now have 20+ schools open in various places across the region. The best thing about this organisation is that 100% of the money donated/sponsored goes to the project!
Sponsors are encouraged to write to the child they are sponsoring and the children are asked to write every 6 months, and will sometimes write more often. The great thing about this project being fairly small, at least when compared to Compassion International, is that sponsors are able to sends gifts over to their child, both in the form of money or actual physical presents. This enables sponsors to have a much more personal relationship with the child they are sponsoring, even if they never get to meet them.
My role now is to translate the letters and emails which are sent from the UK over to Brasil, as this will hoepfully free up the office staff over in Brasil to get on with the other projects run by EAB.
Anyway, look into the organisation, they do amazing work, and if nothing else, please pray that their work continue for many years!
