Global Hope trip to Brazil

For the past couple of weeks I have had the privilege of working at the Instituto Ramacrisna in Mina Gerais. Situated in Belem, 44km southwest of Belo Horizonte, The Ramacrisna Institute is a non-profit organisation founded in 1959 by the accountant and journalist Arlindo Corrêa da Silva. For over 60 years, they have developed learning, professional, cultural, job and income generation, technology, sports and leisure projects, among others, for socially vulnerable communities in 11 cities in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte. Alongside Liverpool Hope University students as part of a volunteering project called Global Hope, I had the immense privilege to work at the Ramacisna institute for two weeks. The aim of this project was to support the work and development of Ramacrisna Arts Co-operative.

Over the course of the two weeks, we have been working with students to build confidence and self-esteem amongst pupils at the cooperative by developing skills in Sport, Art, Music and Drama. The Liverpool Hope students (Georgie, Sacha, Nicole, & Josie) worked with pupils for four weeks in total and directed several theatre performances focusing on Brazilian folklore stories.

I introduced some new sports to students including Rugby, Cricket, and Rounders. The focus of these lessons were on how children improve their communication, listening and coordination.

As well as teaching the students, we were also fortunate enough to participate in some traditional Brazilian activities such as Capoeira. Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art which combines dance, music and acrobatics. It involves placing hands on the ground and using inverted kicks and cartwheels. It emphasizes flowing movements rather than fixed stances; and is said to originate from enslaved Africans.

As well as this, I had the opportunity to work with and play in the orchestra, which was a huge honour for me.

At the end of the trip, we (Sacha, Josie, and I) put on a concert for the students, playing 7 UK songs.

It has been a truly incredible experience and one that we will never forget.

You can watch a short video of what we got up to on our trip here.