Solar Meninos de Luz has completed 34 years on 12/29/2017 and on 12/29/2018 will complete 35 years of assistance services and support to families of the beloved communities of Pavão-Pavãozinho and Cantagalo, work started on 12/29/1983 and never interrupted. Widely developed, these first social actions are now organized in the Family / Community Program (new denomination of Realign Program).
On 08/18/2018 Solar will complete 27 years of integral education actions, which was organized by demand of those families who needed daycare to leave their children and thus allow the mother to work outside her home, which would improve the family income. It was founded on 08/18/1991 with the name Prevent Program, today named as Integral Education Program – which adds 400 students from Nursery to High School and forward them to universities and jobs, at 17/18 years, with a actual daily workload of 10 hours. At the same time, as a support to the students’ families, the Family Program, now called the Family / School Program, was also created.
The three programs: Integral Education Program, Family / School Program and Family / Community Program make up the entire Solar Meninos de Luz institution (formerly known as Meninos de Luz Project).
The changes of denomination came from Solar Meninos de Luz’s broadly developement characteristics year after year, in more than three decades, whitch actions were projected from the observations of the group director and the community demands. They have never ceased to perfect themselves in pursuit of the highest plans of education and social assistance in their mission of transforming lives for residents social inclusion, autonomy, biopsychosocial and spiritual welfare.
In order to give philosophical, administrative, financial and volunteer support to Solar Meninos de Luz actions, it was created on 03/05/1985 the Lar Paulo de Tarso – Spiritist Institution for Studies and Social Assistance, by the same founder of Solar Meninos de Luz, Iolanda Maltaroli, with the help of family members.
With the expansion of objectives and educational, cultural and assistance actions of Solar Meninos de Luz and the consequent increase in costs, Lar Paulo de Tarsus – which is self-sustaining – can no longer afford Solar’s expenses, which is why the institution is always in search of partners and donors.
HISTORY – from 1984 to July 2016
It all started with a tragedy
On Christmas Eve, 1983, a large box of community water collapsed from the top of Pavãozinho’s hill above the shacks, all destroying and killing 12 people belonging to eight families. Early in the morning, Iolanda Maltaroli de Moraes Rego went up the hill to give some assistance, carrying provisions and clothing. Rio de Janeiro population soon mobilized, sending a large number of genres. However, the desperate victims, crying, needed consolation, guidance and prayers, which the leader sought to do. Invited to return, the next day, she went up with her children, Andrea and Isabella, adolescents, who also helped with recreational activities with children who were victims. The other week, again requested, took the children Guilherme and Daniel and friends who participated in a meeting to read the Gospel, which happened in the mother’s leader house, Brígida Lopes Ascención Maltaroli. Slowly, for the interest aroused, it was organized on the street, on a large stone and, for some time, in the room of the Association of Residents, an emergency relief work. The few volunteers were involved in providing Christian moral education for children, youth and adults; recreation; medical care; medicines, newborn dressings, milk, clothing and food donations; since after a while the population stopped sending donations. The “medical outpatient” functioned in the Residents’ Association’s bathroom, and the other activities, for two years, were performed on that stone, which lay ahead.
From emergency aid to organized work
The stricken families, who could no longer rebuild their homes, moved to friends or relatives homes, far away. Thus, in August 1984, the group observed that among child victims, more than 35 children of the community were infiltrated. Not being able to abandon them, she decided to systematize the work. At the end of the year 1984, there were already about 100 children and their families, and the assistance was carried out at alternate times, on Saturdays and Sundays. In need of all kinds of resources, Iolanda decided to transform that growing group that participated in the Gospel reading and engaged in the social assistance work in a Spiritist Center. This house was, for a long time, the same one where the leader’s mother lived in Ipanema. The idea was for the new institution to maintain its social work, in addition to serving the southern area population, that seeks it.
Lar Paulo de Tarso – Spiritist Institution for Studies and Social Assistance – was created in Ipanema and was officially founded on March 4, 1985. From that period on, besides the Maltaroli family, there are great workers who remain until today, July 31, 2016, in Solar Meninos de Luz and Lar Paulo de Tarso: Ana Beatriz Melo de Figueiredo, Lúcia Melo de Figueiredo, Maria da Consolação Mesquita de Oliveira, Viviane Mesquita de Oliveira, Neide Mesquita de Oliveira and Teresa Sobra.
In 1984, a wooden shack was acquired, then a small establishment, at Pavãozinho Avenue, 51, in twelve monthly installments. During three and a half years of many difficulties and sacrifices, it was built Lar Paulo de Tarso building on the hill of Pavãozinho, with 4 large rooms, 2 small rooms, 6 bathrooms, kitchen.
The building was founded in 1987 with the plaque “Lar Paulo de Tarso – Community Space” and it allowed the attendance to 250 people directly and their relatives. The resources came from the work of spiritists with bazaars, lunches, events, promotion of concerts, recitals of classical music and small donations.
The work was restructured and took place on several days of the week, with a medical outpatient clinic with various specialties, a free pharmacy, small professional courses for mothers and youth, such as cutting and sewing, knitting, crocheting and handicrafts; pregnant women course; donation of milk, clothing, food, newborn dressing rooms, home visits, Christian moral education for children and youth; daily supply of soups for extremely needy, sick, and adult literacy evening classes.
The little building was the center of Lar Paulo de Tarso activities on the hill until 1991, with the focus of Assistance to Families, when the Nursery was founded, called Solar Meninos de Luz Project, with new objectives. The focus becomes the child.
Nursery: prevention
Parallel to the development of Lar Paulo de tarso activities headquarters in Ipanema and in the Community, the definition of future work arose from the contact with the families of Cantagalo, Pavão, and Pavãozinho, by the great demand: they imploring us to create a Kindergarten. In this way, they could leave their children safely and go to work in peace, improving the family income.
In addition, by this time, there was an aggravation of drug problems, corruption and violence in the region, which ended up reaching peaceful residents, including adolescents and children. At the moment of defining a line of action, we opt for prevention: start a patient work, taking care of the child from birth. We would offer the best education so that when they grew up, they would be great transformers of life in favela.
The actions should provide the same social opportunities that asphalt children had and an excellent level of education, so that they would have instruments of normal competition for jobs and university in the future.
Meninos de Luz nursery was inaugurated on August 18, 1991, with the support of CBIA – Centro Brasileiro para a Infância e a Adolescência (Brazilian Center for Childhood and Adolescence). From 1989 until that date, the work had been intense: search for donation of property, covenants, studies, volunteer coordinator team stages, selection and training of nurserymen. At first, 100% of the employees lived in the community. We worked two and a half years in the house number 142 of Saint Roman Street (the same one where “O Pasquim” newspaper worked). The house was invaded by poor people and in poor habitable conditions, they cooked in bonfires. Generosity, the comedian and cartoonist Jaguar provided the house for the nursery foundation, since we managed to expel the invaders. We solved everyone’s lives, donating home, taking patients to hospitals, paying tickets to those who wanted to return to the northeast. Posteriorly, ASSESPA – Associação Educacional São Paulo Apóstolo (Educational Association São Paulo Apostle), property owner, gave us the house in comodato through Ronald Levingson.
The volunteer nursery’s management team consisted of Yolanda Maltaroli in administrative-pedagogical supervision, Isabella Maltaroli in pedagogical direction, Elza Salek in pedagogical coordination and Guilherme Maltaroli in administrative direction.
Preventive Program: Creating Transformers
The Preventive Program of preventive and holistic education begins, being part of Meninos de Luz Project (now SML), from birth with the same philosophical principles of today (year 2016), but with modified goals and actions in the course of time. In this Program, children would have a 9-hour full time in the institution, from Nursery to Literacy Class, so called at the time. They would go to public schools and, the other shift, stay with us with lunch and snacks, workshops, tutoring, etc. This educational segment was renamed Meninos de Luz Nursery.
The Program Prevent, projected, by expanding, woupd have to behave as an middle-class family type: courses, sports, health care. So it should build its cultural spaces, education, health, sports, libraries, theater, computer labs, because nothing existed in the community. At each period, search for houses. To each house, a long history of sacrifices and challenges, but of slow conquests.
Serious facts that have occurred in the good public schools to which we refer our children to the alfabatization, the enormous educational gap and the demand of children and parents have made us reformulate the initial project and create the School in 1997 of the so-called CA (Literacy Class) – to 4th grade (now 1st year to 5th year). From then on, it was named Meninos de Luz Nursery and School, unifying from Nursery I to the 4th grade. As children grew, again these occurrences made us offer the 5th grade (6th year, today) in the year 2000, beginning UniverCidade support, through Assespa, paying all teachers. Subsequently, there was continuity of Elementary School II (from the 6th to the 9th year) and High School (1st to 3rd year) with the partnership with UniverCidade.
At the beginning, we decided on classes of only 15 students, so that the care was more personalized, but later we surrendered to the demand reality and we passed to 20 and later 25 students. There is only one class from each grade, providing more accompaniment and because of the lack of space.
Since 2000, there has been a great development of complementary activities, due to the partnerships with Paulo Coelho Institute and Furnas S.A., mainly, but with volunteers and smaller partnerships. Multidisciplinarity with formal education, Conducted Study and Newspaper Workshops, Experimental Cooking, Plastic Arts, Capoeira, Maculelê, Ballet, Contemporary Dance, Theater, Choir, Musicalization, Flutes and Percussion, Informatics: Informatics in the morning, Info-games, Typing Course and English and Spanish courses, etc.- in the afternoon, included in the curriculum.
In 2003 we started the first vocational workshops for youngs and adults in the Community: ACD – Dental Office Assistant (together with Integral Health Center) and an Arts and Crafts Workshop, that in 2004 became the Christina Oiticica Arts and Crafts Center with several Workshops, including Sewing, which was carried out with Furnas sponsorship.
Integral Health Center (now Solar Wellness Center)
The Integral Health Center (now Solar Wellness Center) was inaugurated in partnership with the Health State Department in August 2002 with the General Practice, Pediatrics, Homeopathy, Gynecology, Dentistry, Psychology, Speech and Hearing Therapy, Nursing, Solidary Pharmacy and Reception. It attended until 2006 all the students, family and some other people of the community.
In 2009, the Integral Health Center was provisionally interrupted and transferred to the house 149 at Saint Roman Street, of Administration, and it was reactivated with a partnership with the 9th Criminal Court, which paid the costs of the new installation in 2010. It worked well until 2013, but only with actions, for the most part, through partnerships with various institutions. The directors and the Captation area, in addition to Lar Paulo de Tarso actions, have always been mobilized to search for professionals and volunteers. Progress has been made slowly in the services provided, being well organized from 2014 to this date (2016), with excellent quality of doctors and therapists, but still without all the desirable professionals.
The history of Solar Wellness Center is confused with Solar Meninos de Luz history, always with health and welfare services for students, families and people in the community.
(See Solar Wellness Center for more information)
From a Project to Solar Meninos de Luz
Meninos de Luz project was renamed Solar Meninos de Luz in 1999, when a new goal plan was drawn up inspired by our observations and demands from the community. It was subdivided into three programs: Prevent, which already existed; Family, which was restructured (serving only the families whose children were in the Prevent education program) and Realign, better organized to serve the families of the community in general, who live in a state of material poverty and whose children are not in the education program, as well as orientation to return to studies and vocational courses (in 2006 it changed the title to Community Program).
The plan of social organization and education expansion (Prevent, today, 2016, Integral Education Program) was systematically fulfilled. It reached the goal on the scheduled date (2006), with departure of the first group of youngs graduated from High School, aged 17 and 18, sent to higher education and jobs. UniverCidade offered full scholarships to students, who should have good grades to continue.
In 2004, we realized that students could already collaborate with society. We created Solidarity Boys Project, in witch for two years they visited nursing homes and pediatric hospitals for victims of cancer, leukemia and AIDS, making artistic presentations, taking manufactured gifts in hand and craft classes and promoting occupational therapy sessions with classes given by them. The parents participated in the visits. This movement was intermittent, with some moments without activities, and several others of intense services provided, as in 2011, with the beginning of social work in Caranguejo that was carried out by High School students. In 2016, social responsibility work was made compulsory, with the student ans students had to provide 30 hours of services to the Community, to Solar or outside.
In February 2005, we began the constructions for the creation of Cultural Center and Sports Center, with non-refundable resources from BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development). We seek to better qualify the arts workshops and create sports activities. The inauguration of Sports Center happened in 2006 with a multi-sport court, locker rooms, multi-media hall and semi-Olympic pool foundations. The Cultural Center won Paulo Coelho Community Library, Cristina Oiticica Fine Arts and Crafts Center, music rooms and a professional Theater with 400 seats. Later, due to the need for space for sports activities and environment for Solar and Community events, in the Space reserved for the pool, it was built a covered sports court.
On 06/14/2010 Meninos de Luz Cultural Center was formally accredited as a Culture Point by the Culture State Department.
In 2007, Furnas Centrais Elétricas transferred funds for the recovery of garages that had infiltrations. We created the Science Laboratory, the Art Gallery (2008), a deposit for donations to families and a store for the sale of donated furniture.
The educational unification of Early Childhood Education and High School – Solar Integral School
In 2013, the partnership with UniverCidade ended due to the closure of its academic activities. They sended and remunerated our teachers and pedagogical coordinator for classes in Elementary School II and High School.
Solar Meninos de Luz hired these professionals in 2014, but there was no tuning with the type of integral education required by the institution, which caused the resignation of all by the end of this year. 19 new professionals were hired in 2015, now selected through the content requirements and methodologies that were already part of Early Childhood Education and Elementary School I and others to be implemented.
The initiative was very successful and there was perfect academic and cultural unification between Early Childhood and High School, which Solar lacked. It was only possible with Estácio de Sá University partnership, started in 2014, with financial resources that helped to pay part of the teachers.
This unification allowed the modification of two titles in Solar’s educational process: Meninos de Luz Nursery and School (Early Childhood Education and Elementary School I) and Meninos de Luz Cidade School (Elementary School II and High School) to the only Solar Integral School (Early Childhood Education to High School).
Today, Solar Meninos de Luz counts on excellent teachers, being in great number, with Masters and Doctorate, that believe in the holistic education, humanistic and in Solar Education Philosophical Principles.
Challenges always… and much struggle and hope
Starting in 2014, due to the large financial expense for the hiring and necessary firing of professionals in 2014 and admission of 19 educators, of the new academic team, in 2015, Solar was obliged to provisionally close High School, with the promise of having in 2016 the 1st year, in 2017 the 2nd year and in 2018 the 3rd year, thus restoring the segment. This year 2016 the 1st year is in operation, and Solar will fulfill its commitment in the coming years. We were forced to step back to qualify the teaching, walking many steps ahead.
Today, July 2016, great advances were made in the methodology and interactive and transversal contents, in all segments, with the concretization of the teaching through Projects. There is also introduction of new technologies such as Moodle digital platform and the use of tablets by Elementary School II and High School students, which will later be adopted in other segments.
Solar Meninos de Luz is organizing Education Seminars starting on the second half of 2016.
The Integral Education Program is dedicated to growing in quality, offering students education in harmony with the modern characteristics and needs of the 21st century.
Partnerships
A chapter apart in our history is the participation of our partners. Since 1996 we have started to look for sponsoring companies and donors, since Lar Paulo de Tarso could no longer afford such significant expenses. These partners are now great friends without whom we would not be able to achieve the quality and the extent of the work.
In our history: CBIA – Centro Brasileiro para a Infância e Adolescência (Brazilian Center for Childhood and Adolescence), later replaced by the Municipal Department of Social Assistance, after Education; Paulo Coelho Institute, UniverCidade, Furnas Centrais Elétricas, BNDES, Vitae Foundation, Pró-Vida Institute, Artplan, Approach, Conspiração Films, Firjan, SRCom, KPMG, Bichara, Barata e Costa, Edu-Pró Raizes, Trigona Advogados Associados, Valorarte, Capemisa, Contempory, IBM, Jornal Posto 6, Monobloco, Portal da Cabala, Firjan-SESI Cidadania and more recently, Estácio de Sá University and Mais Caminhos, besides others.
(See the full list at Partners page).
Volunteering
Solar Meninos de Luz owes a lot to its volunteers, who played a relevant role since the beginning in all phases of this work. Before, in their almost totality, they were workers of Lar Paulo de Tarso. Today, our volunteers continues with this characteristic, but includes foreigners and employees arriving from all places and companies. In 2016, there are 180 registered.
Without volunteering there would be no Solar.
Future
Solar dynamism is perceived in the educational, cultural and ethical development of children and young people, in the valuation by families of their children education, and in the great integration with the community and with Rio de Janeiro city.
But this factor, which triggered new activities and actions, causes cost increases. The search for sustainability is an exhaustive work.
Companies generally invest in goods and services, in specific projects, but hardly in costing (employees, charges, electricity, telephone, etc). There is no fiscal incentive for donations in education and social assistance, the area in which we operate.
In the future, Solar should improve actions for sustainability and need to form an investment fund to improve the quality of what exists and guarantee perpetuity.
New partners are the key to our costs through fixed and sporadic financial contributions. We also intend to meet the Community population demand for a night school from Elementary School to High School, seeking partners.
(Last updated July 31, 2016)
