Worldfund's Newest Partner School in Brazil
A Letter to a Supporter from the Founders of Escola Estrela do Mar
We would like to share with you a
little about our school and Worldfund.
Escola Estrela do Mar was founded in
November 2004 with a vision to deliver complete, first-world education to
children who would otherwise be without it. Without education, these kids have very
little to look forward to in their lives. Our school is allowing them to have
dreams and a very realistic chance of achieving those dreams.
Since our
founding, we have been very strained by the lack of financial resources for
operating expenses. This burden was recently greatly relieved after we received
notice that Worldfund had decided to support us with very substantial funding.
This generous support allows us to move forward, improve our work, and provide
space for more students.
Escola Estrela do Mar is located in a village of
extreme poverty in Maceió, Brazil. Because we are far from the
well-traveled commercial centers of Brazil, like Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, we have been
unable to receive site visits by foundations. That was the case until Luanne
Zurlo and Mauricio Trabuco came to visit our school in March.
A site
visit is a critical step for intelligent funding which remarkably is not always
performed by other foundations. In a region where corruption of charities is to
the point where some projects only exist on paper (yet frequently receive
funding from afar), we know that any foundation must approach a
potential recipient of funding with healthy skepticism. Beyond knowing that a
project actually exists, the level at which a project operates - the "results" or
"return-on investment" part - needs to be ascertained. This is necessary because
the majority of charitable projects, including those for education, do not place
a strong emphasis on results. This is a very sad, because only through
results-driven, quality education do most poor Brazilian children have a chance
to escape the cycle of poverty and despair that surrounds them.
We know
that Worldfund does its homework to ensure intelligent funding, and we know
that this diligence is not always performed by other funders. As recipients of
such funding from Worldfund, we know that it is helping us make a
life-changing difference in our community, as it is in many other communities
in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America. We also know that Worldfund is only able to
accomplish this through the generosity of people such as yourself, so we would
like to express our sincere gratitude.
If you are ever in Maceió and would like to see a
Worldfund-supported project, our doors are always open.
Abraços,
David Leiner
Founder, Escola Estrela do Mar
Claudia Barbosa
President, Associação Carlo Novello
Click here for more information about Escola Estrela do Mar
