Guardian Mothers program strengthens school community by employing women

Created in 2021, the Mães Guardiãs (Guardian Mothers) project, run by the City of São Paulo, benefits students, their families, the school environment and thousands of women who were out of work and now play a very important role in society. 

The idea arose during the Covid-19 pandemic and selects unemployed women, especially mothers of students, to carry out support roles in the area of ​​education. They receive training, work six hours a day, from Monday to Friday, and receive a grant that currently corresponds to R$1,386.00.

At the beginning, the mission of Guardian Mothers, which is part of the POT, Work Operation Program, (Programa Operação de Trabalho, in Portuguese), is the result of a collaboration between SME, Municipal Secretary of Education, (Secretaria Municipal de Educação, in Portuguese) and SMDET, Municipal Secretariat of Economic Development and Labor, (Secretaria Municipal de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Trabalho, in Portuguese). 

The objective was to help schools welcome students back to in-person classes safely, respecting health protocols, after the long period of distance learning imposed by the pandemic.

Soon after, the “guardian mothers” began to help reestablish the link between families and the school, monitoring students’ school attendance, carrying out home visits in cases of students with unjustified absences and collaborating with the promotion of good school coexistence.

Given the success of the program, it was expanded and, recently, selected women to also help develop educational gardens in municipal schools. 

A project that encourages learning in the field of Biology, promotes Environmental Education and encourages healthy eating, in addition to providing vegetables for school meals.

A partnership that worked 

According to Henrique Richardson Pereira, director of the Escola Municipal de Ensino Fundamental Prof. Maílson Delane, in the Guaianases region, in the east of São Paulo, Guardian Mothers has been helping to reduce the distance between students and the school community caused by the pandemic. “The program employed mothers who needed to work, were in the community and had contact with many families,” he says. 

Elenita da Silva Matos Soares, from São Paulo, had her life transformed by the project. Mother to a 6 year old boy and a 4 year old girl, she was selected for the active search role in early 2022. 

In this work, she is especially proud of a teenager who was absent a lot and had relationship problems at school. She says she talked a lot with the young woman and her family and, little by little, her reintegration into the school environment took place. “Today, when she passes by me, she calls me mother”, says Elenita proudly during an interview with oglobo.globo.com. 

In addition to the direct impact that Elenita has on families and students, with whom she is always in contact, the project brought an important transformation in her own life as well. Inspired by her interactions with students and her role as a guardian mother, she decided to study education. At school, everyone supports, helps and cheers for her. 

Today, the project has seven thousand participants.

Criteria for being a Guardian Mothers

The candidate must be a resident of São Paulo, be between 18 and 59 years old, be unemployed for more than four months, not receive unemployment insurance, have a family income of up to half the minimum wage per person and be connected to the school community. 

Registration takes place at CATE, the Centro de Apoio ao Trabalho e Empreendedorismo, which despite currently not having vacancies open for the Mães Guardiãs program, offers several other opportunities for relocation into the job market. It is worth taking a look. 

Click here, register and find out about free training courses, tips for starting a business and job vacancies available in various sectors. 

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