Street children earn a meal by learning and teaching

Street children in Brazil earn a meal by learning and teaching from each other

Street children in Porto Alegre and Tobias Barreto earn local money to buy their daily meal, by teaching each other and learning from each other. These children share their knowledge and skills, like: reading, setting bricks, telling a beautiful story, working with computers, installing electricity, cooking, writing, performing as a stand-up comedian, serving in the hospitality industry, or cleaning. Even adults living in these neighbourhoods join in. Sharing skills and knowledge improves their opportunities on the labour market and also teaches these children that they can themselves do something about their situation.

Earning a meal by learning and teaching: a project with a future
The project ‘earning a meal by learning and teaching’ starts in Rubem Berta, a poor neighbourhood of Porto Alegre. The restaurants providing the food are components of STRO’s Business Networks. These restaurant projects also contribute towards a good image of these business networks.

Street children in Brazil earn a meal
STRO is setting up a series of restaurants in Brazil that provide poor children and adults with healthy and balanced nutrition. This happens within the local exchange network, in which poor people and street children can earn their daily meal by learning from and teaching to each other. The local trade and local industry have promised to donate food.

Brazil is not only the land of samba and beaches, but also a nation in which many people can barely make both ends meet. Too often this concerns children living on the streets that have too little to eat. These children are without hope and dreams of a future.

• Learning/Teaching and eating
• First in Porto Alegre

Learning and eating
STRO is working on a unique project to give poor people and street children a healthy meal. The children consume their meals in the evenings in a decent restaurant. However, this is not just another aid programme, because children and adults who join in do not receive their meals for free.

First they have to earn local money. How? By learning and teaching. One person teaches to another what he or she can do best. This includes skills such as: reading, storytelling, setting bricks, installing electricity, performing as a stand-up comedian, cooking, writing, serving in the hospitality industry, working with computers, cleaning and even juggling. Alternately, everyone is teacher and pupil.
In doing so, the children start working on their future and gain more self-confidence. They also learn not to wait for help, but to take action themselves in order to make progress.

First in Porto Alegre, then in more places
First in Porto Alegre, then in more places
The first project starts in Rubem Berta, which is a poor neighbourhood in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre. Here STRO’s partner InStroDI has been setting up a local money programme, where inhabitants can join in on the basis of mutuality, meaning that the participants share their skills and knowledge. The local consumer-business network CompRaS is making an effort to pay the running expenses. In the future such projects will also be implemented in other places in Brazil.

Hard work has been done to construct this first restaurant and now it is ready. See picture.


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