1. The situation The „Galpão dos Meninos e Meninas de Santo Amaro“ is a non-governmental organisation that was founded in 1984 and was approved as a non-profit organisation on 27th of april 1992. It is located in Recife, one of the biggest cities in the north-east of Brasil (hosting about 1.4 million residents), in the Santo Amaro district. Santo Amaro is considered to be one of the biggest and most violent favelas of Recife. Most households (averaged 5-7 members) live on less than the minimumwage (300 Real per month = approx. 130€). The unemployment rate is extremely high and many families have to work in the informal sector or even collect waste in order to survive. Child labour is a common practice.

Santo Amaro is one of the centres of Recife’s drug traffic. Armed gangs pull the strings in that part of town and gunfights between rivalled groups in which people are often killed happen on a regular basis. In most families at least one member is involved in drug trafficking, even children and teenager are used as couriers. Many families are ruined and the parents, often overstrained by the whole situation, are addicted to alcohol or drugs. In a number of cases poverty is so serious that there is not even enough to eat for the affected individuals. Children, teenager and women become victims of domestic and sexual violence or sexual exploitation.
People in such neighbourhoods like Santo Amaro do not have access to basic rights (proper health care, living space, education etc.) that only seem to be reserved for other, wealthier households. Among other factors this lack of living quality causes a feeling of being marginalized and discriminated for the residents.

2. The institution
2.1. Aims and structure

At Galpão we aim at establishing ourselves as contact persons for children and teenager who are caught in one of the mentioned risky situations. We try to encourage them by enhancing their self-esteem and sense of responsibility so that they grow up to be complete members of society that are aware of their rights and duties. Therefore we broach the issues of respect, self-confidence, values, perspectives for live, individuality and sexuality in workshops. What is even more important is that at Galpão the kids get the opportunity to play, to relax and to gain experiences in a safe and neutral surrounding. The topics of the workshops that are offered there range from dancing, percussion, creativity, computer sciences, capoeira and painting to reading, football, knowledge and society, communication and journalism. The workers and volunteers at Galpão try to integrate and address several spheres of life, like their families, school or their place of residence. Due to the fact that the kids often suffer from malnutrition they can get a proper meal after every workshop.

The Galpão-team consists of 12 educators, who carry out the workshops, a psychologist, who offers psychosocial attendance in one-to-one sessions, a social worker, who realises visits in the families, a few volunteers working in administration and in the kitchen, and the heads of the project. Many staff members themselves are former protégés of this institution. In 2005 about 250 children and teenager living in Santo Amaro and its surroundings attended the workshops. More than 500 participated in computer courses. All in all Galpão reached approximately 750 young people.

2.2. Financing
To a major extent Galpão is funded by two English organizations: CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) and Jubileu Action. Further on there are individual persons, who support Galpão with small donations. Galpão also participates in some programmes that the city offers (e.g. a programm for the abolishment of child labour) and thus gets representation allowances.
Sometimes Galpão receives material donations, for example 15 computers of the Banco do Brasil. Food is donated by SESC (Servi?o Social do Comércio), a cooperation of companies that supports social projects with groceries.
Problems in terms of financing will come up next year because of the following reasons: CAFOD is supporting the project with a certain amount of money in dollars. Due to the declining exchange rate the value of the received money is decreasing. Moreover the Brazilian state again has raised the non-wage labour costs for the next year. Out of every salary a share of 31% has to be paid to the state (and this does not mean that the costs for a health or pension insurance are covered). Therefore the organization will hardly ever be able to employ all current staff members in the near future. Also the number of workshops that are offered will have to be reduced if no other way of financing comes up. At the moment the salaries of the educators vary from 150 to 600 Real (about 50-200€).

3. The project: „Stilts-Workshop“
For the period of January to March 2005 a very special workshop is scheduled in Galpão. The children will be taught how to stilt and – in cooperation with the leaders of the dance and percussion workshops – they will work out a presentation that they will perform during Carnival 2006. In addition details about the history of the stilts and other accessories (costumes, kneepads) will be communicated to the participants.
When working with the young people at Galpão their creative and innovative capability soon becomes obvious. During the Stilts-Workshop they will get the opportunity to acquire new forms of expression and to handle their experiences for example in a theatre play.
The opportunities and potentials of stilting are almost unlimited. The project’s sustainability is guaranteed by the fact that the stilts can be used for a long period of time. Besides the artistic skills also the motor skills like the equilibrium sense, the coenaesthesia, the self-confidence and the concentration of the participants are strengthened.