KOLIBRI - CHILDREN AT RISK FOUNDATION
Kolibri - Children At Risk Foundation (KolibriCARF) has worked with streetchildren and children at risk in Brazil since 1992
Children At Risk Foundation (organisation number 977 155 371) is a politically and religiously independent charity registered in The Charity Commission (Innsamlingskontrollen) in Norway (reg. number 074) and submitted to supervision and control by The Foundation Authority. Kolibri – Children At Risk Foundation’s main office is located in Bergen, Norway.
More information about:
Street children and preventive work
Our work was originally directed towards helping children on the street, but today our main focus is on preventive work. By preventing them from ending up on the street in the first place, we are able to save more children.
In the years to come our main objective will be to help children and adolescents in urban high-risk areas dominated by social problems and poverty. Large numbers of children and adolescents – a great many of them living in the favelas – have no chance of creating a decent life for themselves. Also on a global level this is one of the great challenges of our time:
The slum population is increasing with 27 million people a year. Urbanisation is taking place at an immense speed. Today one out of six people in urban areas are slum dwellers. In 2030 the number will be one out of four, and in 2050 one out of three. (World Urban Forum 2008)
Our method is based on giving children and adolescents a tool that will enable them to take charge of their own life, within a social context they know.
The KolibriProject
The KolibriProject works with children and adolescents at risk in the favelas of São Paulo, Brasil – poor areas where crime and drugs flourish, and where many children end up on the street.
Through the use of local art and culture we want the participants to develop knowledge and self-confidence, and to find their own identity. Participants signed up for the different activities are introduced to corresponding groups in Norway, in order for contact, inspiration and cultural exchange to benefit both groups.
This model is based on the experience and competence gained by social entrepreneur Gregory John Smith, who founded the organisation Children At Risk in Bergen, Norway in 1992. He sold all his belongings in order to go to Brazil to work with street children. I 2002 the project was expanded to also include preventive work and an activity centre, called the Kolibri Nest, was opened.
Today nearly 2000 children and adolescents are taking part in the KolibriProject’s activities. In order to participate they also have to attend public school. The Kolibri centres provide care and training, and function as sources of inspiration in the local community.
