Brazil: Circo Ponte das Estrelas
Drinking water dispenser and running costs for Circo Ponte das Estrelas
Circus Ponte das Estrelas is a social institution that helps young people who come from extremely poor and difficult backgrounds and needs your support to be able to bear the daily costs. Your donation will help them to buy flour and grains for bread, rice and beans for cooking, paints and paper for painting, notebooks and pens for working and sometimes a set of new guitar strings. And in paying the electricity, water and gas bills. Without these simple things, unfortunately, the Circus cannot sustain itself. In addition, the Cicus is in desperate need of drinking water dispensers. In Sao Paulo, you can't drink the water directly from the tap, it goes through so many purification processes that it comes out of the tap almost "white" full of chlorine. To drink it, it is filtered.... A water dispenser in the training area at Circo would guarantee clean, good drinking water! In total, they need about 8,500 euros.
About the project:
Circus Sternenbrücke offers up to 25 young people aged 12 to 18 a daily program during their time off from school. Since 2005, the staff has been helping young people who come from extremely difficult social backgrounds and offering them a safe place of retreat with the circus.
The children and young adolescents come from the outskirts of São Paulo - the so-called "slums", built-up hillsides with unplastered walls, small alleys, stairs and clay paths leading to huts made of wood and furniture scraps with plastic tarpaulins or corrugated sheets as roofs. There they live in chaotic circumstances that do not provide them with any support for their development. The neighborhood is one of the most dangerous in São Paulo and offers the best hiding place for drug gangs and criminals. Danger to life is almost constant, as the children are often used as so-called "planes" to deliver drugs. Unfortunately, the young people know violence, lack of structure, drug use, hunger and abuse in all forms also from their own families and above all the feeling of being alone or being responsible alone for several small brothers and sisters. At school and in the families, it either doesn't matter what the young people do, or they are even put down. The consequence of this is that they themselves end up believing that they can do nothing. During the pandemic, everything was twice as hard because they couldn't meet other people who could help or encourage them.
Therefore, many students come to Circus Sternenbrücke with post-traumatic disorders or chronic trauma, are either hyperactive and boundless or apathetic, depressed, without motivation or vitality. Learning blockades, antisocial behavior, addictions and compulsions, much too early sexualization, rhythm disturbances in any form and psychological problems, up to auto aggressions, mental illness and suicide, are the consequences. In our Circus they find a safe place.
Here they get two meals a day and a non-violent environment where they can feel at home. They can participate in classes in various circus disciplines, crafts, handwork, music and art, are supported with their homework and receive individual support when needed. The staff work with parents, guardians and relatives in discussions and offer them social-practical support in everyday life. Together with the school and the family, we work towards the integration or "reintegration" of the students, most of whom have learning difficulties. The regular practice of the Circus disciplines strengthens the children in a therapeutic way, brings a balance and a new cooperation of body, vitality, soul and the ego-will of the children, which has often retreated far in the face of so much adversity.
"We are three teachers and project leaders and we strongly believe that transformation is possible and that everyone is capable of taking control of their lives if only given the chance and the necessary support. That is why we work in this simple daily togetherness.... And with art, which can help so much to make transformations possible. In Circus, there is dreaming and laughing, even at mistakes or foolishness, but above all out of joy and trust that we mean well together."