Alliance Institute Is an Example to Be Followed

The Alliance with Adolescents project aims to contribute to local development through education, influencing public policy and by shaping adolescent protagonists. It is supported by the Kellogg Foundation, the Ayrton Senna Institute, the Odebrecht Foundation and the Brazilian Development Bank.

According to Marcia Campos, president of the Alliance Institute, the major challenge is to break the cycle of poverty. “Youngsters are a very important asset for change.  They have an enormous capacity to influence their own generation, as well as the next and past generations.”

To illustrate this, Alliance invited 20-year-old Ketma Carla dos Santos, a member of the Alternative Technology Service (Serta), an organization associated with the project. “Beforehand, my life was monotonous.  I didn’t know anything about citizenship. My only plan was to become a secretary,” she recalled. “I realized I had a flair for the social area three years ago, during the training process.” Today, Ketma supervises the Public Spending Budget Forum in her municipality and she is a substitute councilor for the Council for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents.

07/22/2004