Impact from Family Visits

Paulo is a student at the Manjacaze Rural family school ( RFS).  He is in second year of secundary school in agriculture and is a boarder at the school.

His greatest dream is to achieve a profession, but he has seen his dream being interrupted from lack of money. At the beginning of 2016, Paulo was removed from the classroom for not having neither a uniform or notebooks. Because of this situation he was unhappy and wept at school because his family could not afford to pay for him as a boarder at the school nor buy notebooks.

The challenge of the RFSs is to keep the students in school, that is why it has the component "Visit the families". The aim is to get to know the reality of the student. It was during such visits to the families that Paulo’s tutor identified the difficult reality that the family faced to pay the expenses.

The school administration studied a possibility of keeping Paulo in school so that he would not miss classes. The possibilities included the family helping the school in agricultural activities or donating something to the school that they produce in their community.

The family decided to make firewood available to the school because it is a resource they have in abundance, and the school uses firewood for cooking and it is a resource that it has little of. Since the school has entered into an agreement with Paul's family in terms of mutual help without involving money, he has begun to smile again because he sees his dream is going to be fulfilled.

translation: Michael MC