Projeto Axe - Brazil

Three main areas of action include: 1) "Street Education," which emphasises the establishment of a relationship with the children in order to form a bond between them and the street educator. This bond gives children the opportunity to speak and be acknowledged as deserving of attention and trust. Through this process, street educators introduce concepts such as civil rights, duties, and citizenship. Practical actions such as the issuing of personal documents, referral to health care, etc., help insert children as members of a community regulated by rules and served by institutions. 2) "Educational Units" can be joined by children who have completed "street education." Along with creative activities, which are tools for their learning and for the building of self-awareness and self-esteem, children and adolescents take part in cultural activities - percussion, dance, circus, ballet, and capoeira. Through engaging in activities that both enhance their creativity and that are governed by rules that each child helps create, children exercise citizenship and learn to respect difference, to abolish privilege, and to trust their potential for changing their own lives. 3) Advocacy efforts with local authorities (both municipal and state governments) help establish a system of professional training to foster the development of adolescents' income-generating activities and to influence public policy.

Children, youth, human rights, child rights, health care.

Axe's methodology is based on nurturing and acting on the children's wishes. Children and adolescents are acknowledged as subjects of an ongoing gradual learning process that incorporates each child's story, culture, potential, and wishes.