Feel Good Friday - Community in Action

We've spent the last month profiling organizations in North America so on this Feel Good Friday we're heading south to profile the work of Community in Action.

An NGO based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Community in Action, or CiA, was founded in 2004. As stated on their website, "Our mission is to offer social outreach programs throughout Rio's favelas (shanty towns) as well as personal development opportunities for social entrepreneurs and foreign volunteers. We work with local residents, schools and NGOs to generate local change."

The reason CiA focuses on the favelas in Rio is because they are home to more than a million residents and yet these communities lack "educational opportunities and extra-curricular activities for youth, infrastructure support to build and restore homes (and) empowerment programs for women."

You can watch this 3:20 minute video (with very catchy music) to meet some of the favela residents and see the work being done by CiA. The current list of volunteer projects includes teaching handicrafts, computers or English, providing child care, working in an urban garden, painting murals and more.

CiA provides compelling reasons to make this your next volunteer vacation. "When you sign up with Community in Action, you'll be with our team and our partners in Rio, learning about the true lifestyle and culture of the favela! We offer the most well-rounded volunteer experience, with opportunities to work in five (5) different favelas and participate in nine (9) different projects. Furthermore, you don't need to volunteer with only one project - you can partake in numerous projects during your time in Rio."

If that makes you want to get a Portuguese phrasebook and a plane ticket, you can learn about placement details here. If you'd rather show your support from the comfort of your couch, you can do that by liking the CiA Facebook page and following them on Twitter @VolunteerinRio. Obrigado!

Feel Good Friday - Project Favela

The 2016 Olympics are taking place right now in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and plenty of medal winners are feeling good. But what happens when the competition is over and the athletes go home? There's still a reason for a Feel Good Friday and that reason is Project Favela.

Project Favela is located in favela Rocinha, the largest community of it's kind in Latin America with over 250,000 residents. Project Favela is a non profit organization founded in 2009 by Scott Miles with the goal "to provide a means in which children have access to high quality educational programs that have the ability to move their lives forward and break the cycle of poverty."

They manage this by recruiting and relying on a team of international volunteers, known as volun-teachers, who teach and mentor over 100 children a day for free.

Programs run from 8am to 9pm. They include the Preschool Project, which focuses on getting the youngest students classroom ready, and an Out-of-School Time Program, that combines classroom learning and project based learning events.

You can get more details by watching this video of Angela Crawford, the Director of Education. She explains the programs in greater detail and you can see scenes from the classroom starting at 6:22. When the after school program is done at 6pm, free English lessons are offered to both children and adults in the community.

If you've got plans to be in Rio, or need an excuse to make some, Project Favela is preparing to open a third school in 2017 and they need volunteers! You can hear a message from Scott and get an idea of the volunteer experience at the Project Favela Blog.

Other ways to support the children of Rio? Donate some cash and like the Project Favela Facebook page and follow them on Twitter @projectfavela. Obrigado!