I landed in Recife at 8:05 after 17 hours traveling and was met at the arrivals gate with ear to ear smiles from Nubia, the director of Espaço da Criança, and her son Rafael.
I was offered two choices:
1. Go back to the house and rest.
2. Join them at the organization where they’d be attending an all-day training session with World Vision on how to help families going through crisis.
The crisis in question was a fire that tore through the wooden-structure favelas last week. It destroyed 200 homes: displacing families, and taking away what little people had of their own. Thankfully no one was killed.
…I opted for #2.
Many of the families and children Espaço da Criança support were directly affected by the fire, hence World Vision sought them out; along with local TV-crews and one-off benefactors who’d surfaced over the week.
What became quickly apparent was that while the donations and TV crews had switched off shortly after, Espaço da Criança were still there — dealing with the fall-out. During the work session Nubia and her team reiterated that the fire was sadly one of many tragedies that has and will touch the children in their community. And while the work session may have imparted a new game or tool, they knew what crisis was and how to deal with it better than anyone because it was what they did everyday.
Given that the session was in Portuguese and I speak um pouco, I learnt a lot… about the organization; the community; and just how important the work Espaço da Criança do is.
I collapsed into bed after a feast. Day #1 done; I was ready for a lie in…
TIE + Espaço da Criança 