For a better world and a happier Humanity
By the Editorial Staff
Thursday | October 10, 2013 | 3:59 PM | Last update: September 22, 2016, 4:07 PM (Brasilia time)
For over six decades, the Legion of Good Will has been present in more than 70 Brazilian cities and has autonomous units in other six countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Portugal, the United States and Uruguay, consolidating itself as one of the largest humanitarian movements on the Planet.
The LBV is internationally acknowledged for the work conducted in its socio-educational units and for its awareness campaigns and social mobilizations—carried out with the differential of Education with Ecumenical Spirituality.
It is a gigantic operation financed by donations from individuals and multi-stakeholder partnerships. This has been made possible thanks to the Organization’s credibility, achieved through transparent management and proven results.
Only in 2010, more than 8.5 million services and benefits were provided to families living under a situation of vulnerability in Brazil. This vocation to serve and celebrate Life is present in all the triumphant stories of children, adolescents, young people, adults, and the elderly who have been cared for by the LBV.
A Commitment to Education
Since it was founded on January 1, 1950 (World Peace Day) by poet and radio broadcaster Alziro Zarur (1914- 1979) in Rio de Janeiro/RJ (Brazil), the LBV has been expanding the reach of its programs focused on giving total support to the Human Being, aside from strengthening its work in favor of the sustainable development of nations.
When journalist and writer José de Paiva Netto took over the presidency of the LBV in 1979, he widened the Organization’s mission by inaugurating model schools and Community Centers for Social Assistance—a network that, on a daily basis, cares for thousands of children, adolescents, young people, adults and senior citizens in social and/or personal vulnerability, including students from public schools.
These buildings serve as base for developing an even greater educational project: the Pedagogy of Affection and the Ecumenical Citizen Pedagogy. In this manner, the LBV proposes the adoption of a teaching platform that is not restricted to curricular content, for it encourages a renewed awareness of citizenship, producing an effect on the remaining spheres of society. As Paiva Netto, creator of this pedagogical proposal, defines: “It is urgent that Education be disseminated and faced by all of us as a safe path that shortens the distance among social classes. It is also an efficient antidote against violence, criminality, diseases and everything that harms the healthy development of the people”.
The level of excellence of this educational proposal has been drawing the attention of educators both from Brazil and abroad. This acknowledgement has resulted in invitations for the LBV to train teachers and prepare materials for several schools interested in adopting its pedagogical proposal. It is also present in congresses addressing Education, and reaches millions of homes through radio and television programs, websites and publications.
Our work
The LBV’s socio-educational units are represented by schools, shelters for the elderly and Community Centers for Social Assistance. Its actions, which are based on a feeling of Solidarity, are also focused on moral and spiritual re-education, in other words, awakening fraternal values in those benefited so they are capable of exercising citizenship and ethics within their families and the society in a conscious manner.
Schools
These have the mission to educate with Ecumenical Spirituality, forming “Brain and Heart”. They aim at promoting in several age groups the harmonious development of the body and the Spirit’s intelligence with quality, competence and effectiveness. The activities conducted in formal education are extended to all stages of primary education.
- Elementary school
- Junior high school
- High school
- Education for Young People and Adults (EJA)
Shelters for the elderly
These are residential units for senior citizens without references and/or those who do not live with their family. By offering physical, social and recreational activities, the goal is to preserve or re-establish the bonds between these elderly people and their families, besides helping those assisted to live with dignity, to be active and to have a healthy life.
Community Centers for Social Assistance
In these units, social assistance programs are developed to provide support for individuals and families, contributing towards the development of their skills, talents and values; making them aware of their rights and duties; and improving their self-esteem so that they can fully exercise their citizenship.
Socio-educational programs
- Baby Citizen
Provides assistance for pregnant women and those with children up to one year of age. It contributes towards the gestation process and family development by means of social, psychological and legal assistance, talks and therapies.
- LBV — Children: The Future in the Present!
Contributes towards the protagonism of children between 6 and 12 years of age through activities that awaken their talents and skills, enable the experience of values and strengthen the bonds between family members. It includes art, ecumenical culture, sports and music workshops, digital inclusion, pedagogical and psychological support, and a toy library. Children stay at the LBV during their off-school hours.
- Training and Productive Inclusion
Prepares adolescents, young people and adults for the job market through courses focused on the development of technical and personal skills.
- Learning and Interaction Program
Collaborates towards sociocultural insertion and the strengthening of citizenship among adolescents, young people, adults and the elderly. Provides a favorable environment for the building of interpersonal, intergenerational and family bonds by offering group activities, sporting events, therapies and so on.
Campaigns
The Legion of Good Will conducts throughout Brazil several social mobilization and awareness campaigns that work towards the valorization of Life, children and families. Through these actions, other activities are carried out to complement the full development of those cared for, such as handing out school supplies and non-perishable food baskets.
- A+ Child – Without Education There is no Future!
With the distribution of more than 12 thousand kits, this campaign affords financial benefits to parents who do not have the resources to buy school supplies for their kids, aside from improving the self-esteem of children and adolescents attending the Organization’s Basic Education Schools, as well as of the participants of the program LBV – Children: The Future in the Present!
- LBV’s Permanent Christmas — Jesus, Our Daily Bread!
Hands out non-perishable food baskets to the families assisted all year round in the LBV’s social assistance programs, to the families cared for by the organizations that belong to the Solidary Society Network and to those supported by the LBV’s partner organizations.
- SOS Disaster
It is a campaign conducted in partnership with several agencies and with the support from hundreds of volunteers. These are immediate and urgent actions to help people and/or communities that have been affected by calamities. It distributes non-perishable foods and basic need items (clothing, footwear, domestic utensils, diapers, bottled water, cleaning materials and personal hygiene products, etc.), aside from providing other services.
