Alternative Spring Break - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Vital Stats

Emilie M

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  • people helped100
  • People Doing It 35

The Problem

Over this past Spring Break, I went on an Alternative Community Service Spring Break trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with the University of Southern California. I just got back a few days ago from the most amazing and incredibly rewarding trip that I have ever been on. We spent a week working in Mangueira, one of the local favelas (slums) in Rio. We were able to help rebuild a sports community center for the local children. We rebuilt some of the walls, cleaned the entire place, and bonded with the local children. This community is surrounded by poverty and a lack of funds to improve the conditions for its people. Our work enable the children of Mangueira to have a clean and functional place in which they can learn, play sports, and interact with one another.

Plan of Action

Our group of fifteen USC students and 25 University of Maryland students was able to work together to renovate the community sports center in Mangueira, Brazil. We spent a week cleaning, rebuilding, and painting the place, among working on other tasks. We were also able to interact with the children and provide them with some positive activities that provided some relief from their dismal surroundings. We have already begun looking into returning to this same community next Spring Break in order to continue working with these people and help rebuild another section of the favela.
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Homelessness and Poverty

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