Out of the poverty trap - People: making a difference

For A Change, August-Sept, 2002 by Richard Pearce

In the last 10 years there has been mounting action in Brazil to lift young people out of the poverty trap and enable them to receive a university education.

As in many countries, people of colour in Brazil are disproportionately represented among the poor. The lower quality of secondary education available to them makes it difficult for students to pass the university entrance exam. This is coupled with the impossibility, for most of them, of covering the fees and other expenses of university education.

The action, conceived by a Catholic brother, Father David, is called Pre Vestibular para Negros e Carentes. (PVNC--literally `preparing black and poor students for the pre-university exam'.) The programme takes place during the nine-month period between the end of the high school year and the university entrance exam.

Lucimar Da Silva Santos, a competent and vigorous young woman, is one of the programme's coordinators in Rio de Janeiro. She organizes over 20 teachers who work voluntarily at weekends with about 100 students, based in classrooms lent by a local school. As a student Lucimar heard about Fr David's movement and decided she wanted to help. She has a job in the Municipal Health Department to cover her expenses and is still completing the last few exams for her own degree.

Most of the teachers are themselves studying in university and are former participants in PVNC. They also include a qualified oil company engineer, a technologist and a lecturer from the Catholic University.

The programme has agreements with several universities. Some waive tuition fees for students who have come through the PVNC programme. The Catholic University has been the most generous: over the years some 3,000 students have been through without any fees having to be paid. In addition, if required, money for travel and food is provided. The arrangement is that students are expected to `repay' the fees afterwards through voluntary work in the community.

During their participation in PVNC, the students are required to pay a monthly fee that is 10 per cent of the minimum wage, about US$8 per month. That gives them a sense of ownership and enables some of the scheme's running costs and the teachers' travel expenses to be covered. Of course there are exceptions; after all, the whole purpose is to help people and not be an exercise in rigidity. There is additional help given to provide books and other materials. Much of what is needed is photocopied.

390,000 students are taking part in this scheme in Brazil. Of the 7,000 in the municipality of Rio de Janerio, 15 - 50 per cent pass the test. There is a national shortage of university places, partly due to the fact that in 10 years the National University has not grown.

Lucimar welcomed me to her classes. It was a moving experience to see their attitudes and enthusiasm.