What is the Brazil-America Sister School Program?

Most importantly, Brazil-America Sister Schools is an exclusive program of Students Helping Street Kids International.

1) Brazil-America School connects American and Brazilian Schools in a "sister school" relationship.  The Brazilian schools are located in or near the northeastern city of Recife, Brazil.

2)  The sister schools are asked to communicate with one another at least once each quarter - a sharing of photos, art work, emails, letters, music, audio cassettes,  CDs, DVDs, bulletin boards in the entrance hallways of the schools. etc.  The many ways in which students from the sister schools can share their cultures with one another are limited only by their imaginations and resources.

3)  A cultural exchange can involve teachers and students traveling to visit their sister schools in each country.  This would involve additional fund raising to pay for such a trip.  It will be easier for American students to raise funds to travel to Brazil, than for Brazilians to raise the funds to make such a trip to the U.S. 

4) We can arrange for high schools students to have a rich volunteer experience in Brazil.

5) The American schools are asked to pledge an annual amount of money to help their needy Brazilian sister-school.  There is no set amount to be pledged, rather we ask schools to pledge an amount that they feel that they can comfortably raise each year.  We feel this is an important component of the sister-school relationship because it allows our American students the opportunity to help students less fortunate than themselves.  We feel that encouraging our students to practice charity and generosity towards their less fortunate peers is an important part of their own education and character development.  The American school will receive reports and photos of how their donations are used.

6) Brazilian sister-schools will provide our organization with a proposal for what they want to use the donated funds for.  Of all funds raised by American schools, we send 80% to the Brazilian sister schools, of which 100% goes toward approved projects that will benefit the school and the educational services they provide to their students.  We never give the funds directly to a school.  The money is sent to our Brazilian nonprofit partner in Recife - Partners of the Americas, Pernambuco-Georgia.  This nonprofit administers all of our sister school funds. They pay vendors and suppliers directly for goods and services. 

7)  Brazil-America Sister Schools can be a school-wide project, coordinated by the student council, or it can be an undertaking of a single classroom or school organization or club such as National Honor Society, Spanish Club, or a student service club such as Key Club or Interact Club.  We like to see the whole school be involved because it can be a valuable global-learning experience for all students at the school; but we are also delighted when individual classrooms and clubs get involved.

8) Initiating and managing a sister-school program in a school is a very valuable skill-building activity for student leaders in any classroom, school club or student council organization. 

9) Brazil-America Sister Schools addresses the values of Goodwill, Understanding, Friendship, Peace, and Charity.

10) This is a program for all age levels - elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and universities.