about us | how we work | history

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About the Founder

CCDIA was founded in 1991 through an initiative of Prof. Dr. Altair Souza de Assis, Professor of the Department of Applied Mathematics in the Federal Fluminense University (UFF).

Dr. Assis is also the director of a UFF extension project, Knowledge Workshop, that awards scholarships to students to work with deprived communities and street children. These students, from disciplines such as Social Work, Education and Psychology, base their final-year theses on practical research and experience gained through helping those in need.

This work has been instrumental in the development of informed local government policy.

The First Education Centres

CCDIA opened its first education centre in 1994 based on the research and statistical data gathered by the Knowledge Workshop.

The research had identified that a vast proportion of the street children in Niterói came originally from a small number of communities in surrounding cities. It had also demonstrated an urgent need to begin working with children in those communities to prevent them from making the transition to the streets.

The first centre was opened in the satellite city of São Gonçalo with the support of Brazilian World Cup footballer, Jorginho, and was quickly followed by a second serving the 'Soap Slum' in the centre of Niterói.

Both projects began with supplementary education for under-12s and have gradually expanded their programme to include physical education, Information Technology and languages.

CCDIA Today

In addition to its own projects, CCDIA now works to help churches in the Rio/Niterói area and beyond - churches in disadvantaged communities, keen to start projects of their own.

Three projects have already been established in partnership with churches in Rio state and three more in Mato Grosso do Sul in south-west Brazil. One of these church projects, in Duque de Caxias north of Rio, is now CCDIA's largest with over 400 children registered.

The work has grown too, through the help of volunteer staff, making extra-curricula courses such as English language an integral part of CCDIA's programme, offered to both younger children and teenagers.

Generous donations of computing equipment have enabled volunteers to begin teaching Information Technology, and CCDIA has begun revolutionary work to bridge the 'digital divide' - the lack of access to technology that is threatening the future employability of these children.

Growing into the Future

Our hope for the future is to increase the number of children reached by our work.

The amount that we can do alone is limited, but by identifying others with the same vision and empowering them to start projects, the possibilities are endless.