Vila Feliz
Seeds of Life is excited about our international partnerships, and our relationship with Um27 of Joao Pessoa, Brazil is definitely one our most valued joint ventures. Um27 is a non-profit organization in Brazil with the goal of ending systemic poverty in the Villa Feliz slum projet of Joao Pessoa. Joao Pessoa is a stunningly beautiful city of about 500,000 on the eastern most point of the Americas. The city is actually closer to Africa than it is to the United States. The tranquil beauty of Joao Pessoa is belied by the severe poverty found in several slums scattered throughout the region. Joao Pessoa is the capital of the state of Parriba, which has one of the highest rates of poverty in the entire nation of Brazil. The root causes of devastating poverty are not too hard to identify; the foundation usually being illiteracy. Joao Pessoa and other communities in Parriba are not immune to the effects of improper education.
um27 is vigorously attacking poverty in one of the most severely underdeveloped communities in the region, Vila Feliz (Happy Town). Vila Feliz has a population of about 2000 people, many of which are unemployed, scavenging recyclables to scrounge an existence. Um27 has obtained grant funding to transform most of the shanties in the slum to actual houses with electricity and water collection tanks on the roof of each home. However, a third of the shanties still need transformation.
Furthermore, Um27 is aggressively addressing both child and adult illiteracy by offering several reading and writing classes each week. Also, Um27 provides mental health counseling, as well as preventive and emergency medical and dental services. Ultimately, the goal is to end systemic poverty within one generation.