So far, working for an NGO in Brasil has been completely an up and down experience.
(some background): My NGO is a rehabilitation center for children from low-income families born with cleft lips and/or palates.
The rehabilitation process for these children involves two steps: first, re-constructive facial surgery (usually performed when the child has one year). This surgery is carried out at a special research hospital of Universidade de São Paulo (USP), 6 hours away, where children with all kinds of facial deformities throughout Brazil are seen. The informational videos about the Hospital are a little heavy, to say the least. I know because I watched 5 of them.
The second phase of treatment involves therapy in the areas of (most importantly) orthodontics and speech followed by hearing, feeding, psychology and social work. This phase is carried out over an average of 18 years… and now you’ve officially been introduced to _____, my NGO.
And where to even start. The NGO does great work. The medical staff and therapists are well trained, professional and people who are genuinely interested in helping children who are born into adversity. Everyone on the administration side of the organization is either a bearer of a cleft or mothers of children with the birth defect.
The frustration starts with the objectives of my “traineeship.” I had several problems at first because it has never been completely clear what I am supposed to be doing for the NGO: it’s obvious that they need someone working with marketing, fundraising and general development of the organization. They have never had ANYONE doing these activities, and the NGO is almost 20 years old.
To give you an idea of what I came into: the NGO just got Internet (a breakthrough!), they don’t have a web site, there are two working computers with Windows ’98. There isn’t any kind of information for the NGO to distribute. Once someone made them a banner. They are housed in a closed area next to a hospital that is not longer in use… most people have no idea that there is an organization behind the white walls on the street. All of the accounting is done by hand-held calculator. Lastly, there are *NO* funds available to initiate any kind of marketing strategy, whether it be to design informational material, create a web site, organize an event, etc.
The central problem for me is that what the NGO lacks in this area affects my ability to raise funds locally and nationally.
Hi, would you like to partner with us to help children born with a serious birth defect?
Well, maybe, tell me about your organization.
Okay, we do X and X and X.
Wow, that sounds great. What information can you give me to pass on to President of this Brazilian Company?
Uh, actually, we’re working on updating that information right now.
Oh, well I’ll just check out your website.
Umn, that’s currently underway as well.
So, we’re going by word-of-mouth here?
Yeah, still wanna help us out?And… no. So I`m trying to work with all of the resources I have: I made an informational flyer on Microsoft Word, have contacted a U.S. organization about helping us expand our medical programs, met with an HTML teacher about designing the web site for free.
And now I’m just waiting. Waiting for the web designer to get back to me, waiting for the US org to evaluate our request, waiting for the President to get back to me about publishing the flyer so it can actually be put to use.
I am frustrated because I feel that I’m expected to pull these things (mainly MONEY) out of thin air without any kind of guidance and very few resources.
There is a kid who wants to organize a hip-hop show (in Portuguese pronounced “hip-hopy”) with his church to benefit my organization. Great. Yet the administration department seems less enthusiastic… the guy needed information about the NGO (THERE IS NONE TO DISTRIBUTE FOR ANYONE) and I got in trouble for printing out the historical info without authority. The NGO will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2007 and still does not have any thing like this to give to someone who is interested in HELPING the NGO. It’s like the NGO doesn’t know how to help itself unless someone walks up and says “I’m going to give you this without requiring any kind of work from you in return.” You can imagine how often that happens.
There is a lot more I would like to write here, but as this information is public I’m going to stop now. Is anyone still even reading?
ag, backpack or groceries, he or she will most likely offer to hold your belongings on his/her lap to make your ride more comfortable.
pedestrians (mainly men) walking along the side of the highway. This makes me nervous, especially because even moving at 90 km/hr someone could be crossing the road just ahead
Click on the collage to enlarge. My room is on the right.
Words for the wise: after staying up all night and you're starting the three-hour trip home from Carnaval on a windy road through the hills of Minas Gerais, DON'T stop for pão de queijo and proceed to eat as many as possible in a short period of time. You'll get sick, and I speak from experience.
Carnaval in Caxambú is already starting to seem like a distant memory: I don't think five days and five nights have ever passed so quickly!
al days. My sister's last words to her Mom:: "pray for us!"
The house we were staying at (my host dad's father) is about a 2-min walk from the center, so most of the day and night is filled with descending and ascending home-base to dancing-base. There's quite a lot of drinking involved, but it's also not weird at all to find young people who aren't drinking at all. Carnaval in Minas proves to be a good spot to find young people from all over Southern Brazil, including Cariocas (Rio), Paulistas (state of SP) and of course Mineiros themselves (anyone from Minas Gerais). It's fun to hear all the different accents, but I must admit nothing compares to a random-American speaking Portuguese in the midst of the non-touristy Brazilian Carnaval. I had such a great time, I can't believe that it's over!
