Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais: 'Creche' a favela nursery and daycare

This weekend we had a visit from Frei Paulo, Father Paulo. He arrived at the home to solicit the help of Gigi and Jo in raising money for his daycare in one of the city center favelas. He was proposing to have a lunch in the big kitchen here sponsore by Gigi and Jo to which people would bye tickets to attend as a fundraiser next week.

While here, he offered that I go and visit the daycare, as he says most foreigners like to visit and often give money. (I felt like most of his and the workers were constantly doing a salespitch while we interacted which is good since it increases their chances of raising money, but I found it off-putting. For example, we were at lunch at the daycare and the main woman said to me if my family has a business at home or I know others that would be able to donate to put them in contact with the daycare. She said that foreigners feel good about giving donations to such causes. I didn't feel like it was the appropriate time to talk about it nor did I like the assumptions that people I know would want to give money.)

Either way the visit was neat. The kids were wonderful! All between 1 yr 3 mths and 5 yrs 6 mths, the daycare can take 84 kids at any one time. When we got there the young ones were already fast asleep and nothing, I mean nothing, would wake them. Oh to sleep like that again! Some of the older ones had just finished eating and were going upstairs to nap too. They came in to say hello to me and each one (snot-covered ones too), with big grins on their faces ran up to me to give me a big hug to say hello.

They were explained that I was Canadian and didn't Portuguese but a language called English. They repeated the word, 'Ingles'. Then they grabbed me by the hand and led me upstairs. I was allowed to take some photos and the kids loved being photographed!

Apparently when the older ones woke up, they had expected me to still be there. Unfortunately we had gone, and so they asked their caregivers what it was that I was saying because they knew i was trying to talk (in Portugues actually) but it wasn't the way that they talk.

At the daycare, the kids are mainly from very poor families. So everything is given to the kids for free including, four meals (including dinner at 4 before they go home), showers, toys, clothes, ability to watch television and mats to sleep on. The food is provided by the government and supplemented by the daycare purchases. Some money too comes from the government, but mainly donations.

Here you can see on of the local favelas that I drive by everytime to get to town. Thhis day, if you can see, there were three horses from the favela that had come out to eat the grass beside the highway. The horses were bone skinny. On the left you see some of the city and on the right the highway.