By Katie Evans
As the street fight dissipates, dust lingers in the air and a bloodied person lies on an unpaved road of Brazil. The dirt-stained children casually play tag near him. Their cement shanty homes huddle together in the ravine and the river to the east overflows with trash.
This scenario, witnessed by BYU student Jacob Durrant when serving a mission in Brazil, has motivated him to fight the cycle of poverty among the uneducated Brazilian children. He and Cesar Melo, a visiting instructor from Bahia, Brazil, have established Project Educate, a non-profit organization that allows Brazilian children to overcome poverty through private education.
?There are millions of kids living in the streets in Brazil without parents, food, or the worst, without hope,? Melo said.
Melo spent last year saving the money he earned from his BYU graduate work, hoping to send 18 Brazilian children tuition money for a private education, the equivalent to an American high-school education.
When the money only covered 14 of the children, he created Project Educate in hopes to raise money for more children.
?When I met up with Melo he was sending a large percentage of everything he was earning as a master?s student to the kids in Brazil,? Durrant said. ?I heard what a sacrifice he was making and I felt compelled to help him.?
Project Educate provides full-tuition scholarships for the children living in shantytowns in Bahia so they can attend private school, increasing their chances of pursuing a future university education.
?When I was I was teaching the seminary and primary,? Melo said. ?The summer of 2003 I went back and many of the kids I was teaching were not going to church anymore because they had to work. They just don?t have any perspective of going to college.?
Melo said while the universities in Brazil are free, poor people can?t get in. Public school students are barely able to read and write after they graduate and the entrance exam for universities favor private school students.
?You have free universities that are serving the rich people and not the poor people,? Durrant said.
Travis Alvord, a senior majoring in philosophy, served in Porto Alegre Sul Brazil mission. He remembers talking to poor children about the value of public school.
?It didn?t seem they had any appreciation or value for education, the public school system wasn?t instilling the importance of education,? he said. ?A lot of times the children don?t even go to school, especially in the poor parts of Brazil.?
Karina Pinto, a Portuguese teacher in Melo?s Bahia ward, is Melo?s contact in Brazil to help find children to sponsor. Pinto works 12 hours a day and makes the contacts with the families and schools. Melo talks to her every week by phone and e-mail to stay up-to-date with the progress of the children.
A monthly $50 donation or one-time donation of $600 will sponsor a child?s private education for a whole year. Each person who contributes receives a progress report of their sponsored student with photos and grades, according to the Project Educate Web site.
Durrant said while giving any amount of money helps greatly, they are also enlisting the help of volunteers.
?We are just two guys that don?t know what we are doing with fundraising,? Durrant said. ?There is plenty of work to do, we could use anyone?s help.?
Durrant said they are also working with the Brazilian Club to organize public fundraising through dances.
The 14 Brazilian students they are sponsoring are excelling in private school. However, their poverty-stricken lifestyles sometimes interfere with their performance.
?Last October, one of the kids with her family lost her house and she was in the streets with the family,? he said. ?With the help of members of the ward, her family now lives in a small room.?
Melo applies the saying ?it?s better to teach a man a fish than give a man a fish? to motivate the work of Project Educate.
?We can give the kids food and clothes, but without education, there is no hope, and faith, hope and love must be together,? Melo said.
To contribute or volunteer visit http://home.byu.net/jdd34/index.htm or e-mail Jacob_durrant@hotmail.com.