While waiting for the first report from the Engineers Without Borders, there is still plenty of news. The new Street Lab Project, which kicked off in January with the big “happening” in Massaranduba, is now in full swing and the excitement is palpable, with a rich series of ICBIE courses that began on Thursday.
Finally, these courses benefit from solid public support, coming from the City of Salvador and the Italian Region of Emilia-Romagna, together with our most faithful supporters from ARCI Solidarietà. The program was established during an important meeting that was held at the ICBIE between Christmas and New Year’s, with Salvador City Superintendent Edvando Luis Castro Pinto (Tucunaré), the Secretary of the Salvador Graffita Project Ms. Amine and the two representatives from ARCI Solidarietà in Reggio Emilia Riccardo Faietti and Giulia Bassi, along with the ICBIE’s Pietro Gallina and Marlene De Souza and the newly appointed coordinator of the Oficina di Rua Project Júlio Pereira Costa.
The curriculum has been enriched with a new course in Citizenship and Group Leadership, taught by our fabulous hapkido instructor, Augusto Carvalho, in order to prepare the graffiti artists and other interested young adults for the important work with the street children of the most difficult Salvador neighborhoods.
The rest of the curriculum (which is restored to its former glory thanks to the generous contributions from all of our friends) contains the typical ICBIE offerings, with a novelty or two; besides the regular computer science classes, Marlene’s Italian and Mary Overby’s English courses, Pietro is teaching a course in Art History, appropriately complimenting Júlio’s courses in drawing and graffiti wall painting.
In order to adequately document the many phases of this innovative socio-cultural project, Júlio has opened an Oficina de Rua blog! He has already posted many wonderful pictures, a video and written descriptions (in Portuguese). Bookmark this right now!
http://oficinaderua.blogspot.com/
As part of the institutional support, funding has also been provided to improve our physical facilities, and during the past couple weeks, a beautiful new roof has been built in the hostel area, covering a big area outside the kitchen and providing a usable space even when it rains.
