1: Princess Diana Home of Girls

2003-2004 has seen Jubilee Action take important strides forward in its work in Brazil.

Jubilee Action sent £43,138 to pay for the running costs and renovation of our Princess Diana Home for Girls in Rio. The Home provides a safe family environment and education for girls between 6 to 18 years old. The new changes mean that the home has the facility to offer up to 45 children the chance to live at the Home. The newly decorated home is providing an opportunity for the creation of a substitute family to develop for these children.

Jubilee Action’s partner, Sao Martinho, aims to ensure that the children and adolescents it looks after, especially those who have come from abusive backgrounds, become autonomous individuals.

The renovations were necessary if we were to fulfil their vision to provide a positive environment that reflected the children’s future not their past. The staff say that improvements have transformed the atmosphere of the home. The children have a renewed pride in their home which we hope will continue to instil in them a sense confidence in their own identity.

2: Hope and Life Centre

In February 2004, a Jubilee Action delegation, led by Lord Alton of Liverpool, went to Brazil to evaluate the levels of violence against children. The group initially hoped that the situation had improved since the dark days of the 1990s when children were routinely shot in the streets. But what they found was more shocking. The problem had simply been pushed further underground. Hidden in the sprawling favelas, four to five children are killed every day.

The team met Fr Tony Terry who, for forty years, has served children at risk in Brazil. He told them that he desperately needed £40,000 to save the Hope and Life Centre in Recife from being sold – despite it being a vital sanctuary for 500 vulnerable children in the most violent area of the city.

Jubilee Action sent £40,541 to purchase the property and renovate it. Now, 1000 children will be able to attend workshops in arts and craft, IT training and employment coaching.

Fr Tony told Jubilee Action during a visit to the UK ‘I am so glad that you didn’t just come to look and sympathise but you went back and took real action. Thank you to everyone who played their part.’

A further £10,000 was given for a circus project that the Jubilee Action team visited in Sao Paulo that is providing recreational activities for children at risk.