2 September 2001

Volunteers at CCDIA

The International Year of the Volunteer is proving to be a great success at CCDIA. with many, many local residents coming to help in our projects.

Our volunteer program, "All for One", has built a strong core of over 80 volunteers at our 4 main projects, the majority being professionals or university students.

We have teachers of I.T., English, Maths, Portuguese, History, Geography, Science, Dance, Music, Enivronmental Education, Health Education, Religious Education. Other volunteers help as translators, web designers, architects, legal advisers and so on.

There is still more work to be done. Find out how you can help.

11 June 2001

CCDIA Mutuá - new music room, university foundation course

Children at the CCDIA project in Mutuá, São Gonçalo, can look forward to a freshly decorated building and expanded facilities, thanks to a gift from a private donor. A new music room will house the choir and the keyboard and recorder classes.

The project currently has 60 children attending school reinforcement and English lessons. This is expected to increase to over 100 in the near future when we hope to open a computer room to teach I.T.

This month the project is also starting a new University foundation course for family members and relatives of the children who attend. 10 volunteers from the Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói's main university, will give classes in Maths, Portuguese, Spanish, History, Geography and Physics.

Based on the successful courses run by CCDIA Niterói in partnership with Oficina do Saber, the aim is to directly address the needs of families in the community. The course will initially have 40 places.

2 June 2001

CCDIA Niterói serving more children than ever before

Around 100 children and teenagers now attend CCDIA's Information Technology lessons in the centre of Niterói on a weekly basis.

16 children receive daily help with their school work, in addition to the 27 teenagers who attend Maths and Text Workshops.

Our literacy and numeracy courses for special needs students are attended by 18 teenagers and we have three groups of children of all ages learning English.

Most of these children come from a local slum, Favela do Sabão, with a population of 3,000. It is a community ravaged by drug trafficking.

30 May 2001

New Lutherie course

The latest addition to our timetable is rather unusual. CCDIA is now offering 20 young people the chance to learn a trade by completing a vocational course in Lutherie, the making and repair of stringed instruments.

As well as practical lessons, the course will include tuition in Business Studies, I.T., Maths and Environmental Education.

The course, provided thanks to generous support from the Comunidade Solitária, will be professionally recognised.

16 April 2001

Boat-building Course Update

The children attending the boat-building course in CCDIA Niterói have completed their first canoe.

12 March 2001

New project - Vida Nova

A new project has opened in the Vida Nova district of Campo Grande/MS, in southwest Brazil.

Opened in co-operation with the Evangelical Development Institute (IDE) and funded by the State Government of Mato Grosso do Sul, the project is attended by 120 children and provides lessons in School Reinforcement, Recreation & Sport, artistic activities and Health Education.

17 January 2001

New Computing Centre in Mutuá

The promise of a generous donation of 10 computers from Viva Rio will be good news for CCDIA Mutuá.

The computers, which will hopefully arrive within a few months, will provide the centre with a solid foundation on which to start a Computing Facility.

The search for volunteers to teach the lessons begins immediately. If you want to help, you know where we are!

17 January 2001

Computing Facility renovated and reopened

The computing facility at CCDIA Niterói has been completely upgraded and refitted to enable an expansion of our pioneering work to bridge the 'digital divide'.

With upgraded computers and a network installed to provide shared access to the Internet, we hope to be able to provide many, if not all, of the following courses in the very near future:

Basic Internet

Advanced Internet (including site design)

Corel Draw I & II

Advanced installation & configuration (software & hardware)

Network installation & management

Linux fundamentals

These are in addition to our existing courses of:

Introduction to Information Technology

Windows

Microsoft Word & Excel

We aim to make full use of our army of volunteers! If you want to help, get in touch.

17 January 2001

New boat-building course

Thanks to the help of volunteers, four teenagers are embarking on a new venture at CCDIA - they are learning the skilled craft of hand-building canoes. Not only are they developing a professional trade, but they are picking up transferable skills along the way.

1 January 2001

Feliz Ano Novo! (Happy new year!)

CCDIA is entering the International Year of the Volunteer full-steam ahead! In the year 2000, at one centre alone we have had 8 volunteers teaching I.T., 2 teaching English and 1 teaching music.

No less than two teams of young people have visited from the United Kingdom and an Oslo YMCA has generously paid for and hosted our girls' football team whilst they competed in the Norway Cup.

Observent ears would have even heard Norwegian, English and German mixing with the Portuguese in our centres at various points during the year!

We're looking forward to the joys and opportunities that await us during the following year and we certainly have BIG plans for 2001! With your help and with new sources of funding we hope to be able to open our doors to more children than ever before.

Come and join us for the International Year of the Volunteer.