Building and rebuilding dreams of young people from Rio de Janeiro

Understanding the good idea:

What encouraged Jonas to create this project was the fact that he was a volunteer as a guitar teacher at an extinct institution called the Centro Integrado de Apoio a Crianças e Adolescentes de Comunidades (CIACAC, which operated in the community where he lived. Jonas was appalled to see the children playing without any structure with the extinction of the NGO’s activities, since they were left with no option for activities outside of school hours.

Main activities

Education, musical instruments workshops (guitar, drums, and keyboards),tutoring classes, sports (football, handball, and basketball), collection and distribution of food handouts, psychological support through volunteers, and delivery, through medical prescription, of donated medicines. Since 2018, 130 people have directly benefited, including children, young people, and adults. Age range of beneficiaries: from 8 to 40 years old.

How did it start?

Given this, Jonas made the decision to team up, use the knowledge he had received from his guitar lessons, and ask for assistance from others to support those kids. Many of them were affected negatively by the neighbourhood. After being part in the music project for just over a year, Jonas developed a preference for volunteering. He later realised how much youth and children needed leisure and cultural activities when the NGO shut its doors. It was at this point that he spotted, a little later, boys playing in the neighbourhood’s streets with fake guns made of wood and other abandoned items.

What changed?

He then made the decision to begin the project using the knowledge he had gathered while serving as a volunteer. In the places assigned to him, he carried out the project with assistance from several residents. With the help of his guitar lessons and ability to keep the kids a little off the streets by providing them with a means of culture and recreation, Jonas was able to maintain the project for almost a year. In addition, he was able to secure donations of various food items, which allowed him to assemble food handouts and send them to those who were more in need.

But in 2019, as a result of rising violence in the neighbourhood brought on by ongoing conflicts between factions, criminals also started to obstruct Jonas’s job. Due to this, he was forced to relocate with his family and the project in order to ensure their safety. The initiative is currently running in the Viga neighbourhood of Nova Iguaçu, a city in the Baixada Fluminense in the state of Rio de Janeiro, where more than 10,000 people live.

Team

Jonas Parmelo, his wife Lilian Julia, and Júlio César Vicente, a neighbourhood resident who not only participates in the coordination but also oversees the sports secretariat and serves as a soccer coach, work together to supervise the initiative. They also have a support system of individuals who can help them out when needed.

The group is unpaid. Lilian Julia is a stay-at-home mother who splits her time between the project, caring for her girls, and household duties. In the evenings, Jonas Parmelo works as a security guard. During the day, he divides his free time between coordination and teaching guitar. Julia Santos, his 14-year-old daughter, was a project participant who now shares her knowledge with people who are just beginning the project. And lastly, Júlio César, a self-employed individual, works during the morning and devotes the afternoon to the project. The project doesn’t have a physical headquarters; instead, it uses places that are offered by the locals, the nearby area, and Jonas himself.

Challenges & Victories:

“Adding more people who want to do good without seeing whom to is the toughest issue.” The expansion of the project as a whole and a greater level of parental involvement are their two main goals, according to Jonas.

The initiative is still running in the midst of the pandemic, however it barely serves a few people.

With the aid of volunteers and donations from congregants, the major activity is gathering and distributing food handouts to families in the neighbourhood where the project is currently taking place as well as in the community where it began.

Victories 

According to Jonas in a chat with Coluna da Neuza, “the greatest accomplishment was managing to keep the project functioning despite the lack of human, material, and financial resources.”

One of the project’s participants, 10-year-old Natanael, remarks that it is crucial for him to be a part of the soccer initiative and that since he started, his reasoning has gotten quicker and he is more eager to learn. The best moment, according to Natanael, who also takes guitar lessons, is when there is a championship.

Out of his own pocket, Jonas purchased a piano, a used guitar, and a drum set for kids. The goal now is to register the project and receive a CNPJ in order to be able to raise money. Although a few more guitars and sports equipment were donated, they weren’t enough to benefit the participants.

How to support to multiply?

This project accepts donations:

Banco: 260 – Nubank

Agência: 001

Conta: 91502026-9

CPF: 035.355.966-02