The project also includes educational and recreational activities for adolescents, such as after school activities, in order to remove them from the streets. Courses on computer science, physical exercise, art, cooking, sewing, a football school and a drama school have been organised for them. Young people participating in these courses are also given a complete and abundant free meal, which, for some of them, represents the only meal of the day. In 2015, Novacaritas also decided to provide pedagogy classes to the parents of young people participating in Project Educar, in order to increasingly involve them, though dedicated courses (e.g. dancing classes) and various cultural initiatives, and to ensure that the students will find educational continuity between school and family.
Overall, since the project was launched, more than 800 Brazilian young people have obtained a university or a technical-professional school diploma and have rapidly found employment.
A building has also been renovated in the favelas of Pedreira, São Paulo, and converted into a school for another 280 adolescents.
Again, in Brazil, in the municipalities of Cotia, Santa Catarina, Curitibanos, Cuiabà and São Paulo, there are primary and lower secondary schools for children from the poorest families. These schools are run by a Congregation that has been assisted by Novacaritas with contributions intended to pay the teachers’ wages.
As expected, considering the success met by the project, since 2014 it has also been extended to Italy, where it bears the educational expenses of two Indian children adopted by an Italian family. Moreover, since the education of young people is not limited only to schoolrooms, a contribution is also given to two local amateur sports associations that are committed to developing and spreading the practice and values of sports activities among children and adolescents.
Construction works and furnishings have, instead, been funded in Paraguay for 8 new schoolrooms in Saladillo, where about 120 students daily attend school. These contributions are making the building increasingly modern and independent. Now it is almost entirely self-sufficient.
Even the university residence in Concepción, where the Foundation funded structural works and the construction of a gym centre in 2014, is now completely efficient and autonomous. Students can now entirely focus on their studies to build a decent future.