Social project mobilizes young people and adults in Complexo do Alemão

Yes! Since 2014, the project Abraço Campeão, located on the way up from Morro do Adeus, in Complexo do Alemão (North Zone of Rio de Janeiro), has been making this happen, with the help of partners and the engagement of the community itself.

By the year of 2021, 359 people were assisted and, nowadays, more than 400 students from 07 to 29 years old benefited from the project monthly.

What is the purpose of Abraço Campeão Project?

The project seeks to inspire children and young people throughout the practice of martial arts, along with Education and Personal Development.

Alan Duarte, communitary leader and founder of the project, graduated by the Social Leadership University of the NGO Gerando Falcões, explains the details of this initiative that is, without any doubt, a champion. 

The beginning

“I started the project Abraço Campeão by giving classes in a soccer field where I faced rain, heavy sun, shootings and other adverse situations. We used materials that were to be discharged by a NGO that I participated in as a student and used an abandoned bathroom next to the field”, tells Alan.

Right after, he started to study management and fundraising and began to develop projects and to evolve volunteers. The initiative started to gain shape and today is the Abraço Campeão, a structured project with its own headquarters.

Offered activities

In the project, are offered different kinds of activities, such as:

• Boxing, karate and functional exercises 
• Citizenship and Personal Development Classes, in the form of conversations about relevant themes, with the goal to create an “emotional musculature” in the participants
• Social Assistance and legal support to the students’ families; access to the networks of Reference Center of Social Assistance (CRAS) and others
• Cultural tours
• Passeios culturais.

The project also stimulates young leadership throughout the formation of a group, Geração Campeão, that acts as a student council.

Insight

In Alan’s opinion, the favela has a huge potential, but it is wasted by people that manage this country: “Brazil is an expert to throw our talents in the trash”, affirms.

He says that see young people involved with crime or any illegal activity and thinks “this guy working in a big company would be the best”, but the opportunities don’t come to them.

Fortunately, the project has be3en able to offer some of these opportunities.

Vision

“The job we do here is like love. When we begin a relationship, we don’t know if we love that person. The time passes and, in a given moment, we say ‘I love you’. Holy! We can’t say when love happened, we just feel it and say it. It is what happens here, we start doing and, when we realize, the change has happened. That is what motivates me to get up every morning, to know that that little brick I’m placing today is for something much bigger and that, at any moment, a young person is going to wake up and think ‘you know, I can go wherever I want, I’m free”, says Alan.

About the challenges, he says that the project Abraça Campeão faces obstacles every time but, today, the biggest ones are the structural remodeling, assembly of classrooms, fundraising (via the Sports Incentive Law) and the donations.

To finish, Alan Duarte says about the project’s victories and conquests: “The institution has as its main victories the institutional growth, the conquest and recognition of the DOARE and AMBEV Management and Trust seals and the self esteem conquered by many students. For example, the student Luiz Fernando won the runner-up Brazilian Championship of 2021; a student got out of an abusive relationship and today she is one of our best athletes; Matheus is employed and has already been promoted twice in the company where we works and dreams on being the CEO of it, ad he can; students who are working on AMBEV; a student who founded a NGO; former students who are noy employees in the project; and other advances and little achievements”.

Alan describes yet that Abraço Campeão changed his life and that he is sure that is changing also the lives of children and young people who participate in the project. For him, it is great to see people grow along with the institution.

Future projects

The institution intends to undertake a social business such as sales of a own-brand sport material, pursuing self-sustainability.

For more information and ways to support, access the website here.

Be a Abraço Campeão Ambassador clicking here.

Watch the documentary on Alan Duarte’s life, winner of 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.

Follow Abraço Campeão on Instagram and Facebook, also in English.

Email: abracocampeao@gmail.com