A visit to PRECE in 2008

An American Visits Cipo

(Updated from the original version written in 2003)

            There is a place in a poverty-stricken rural area of Northeastern Brazil where some dreams do come true.  These dreams do not materialize out of the thin air.  They are not the result of luck or wishful thinking.  These dreams are for an education, and when they do come true they are the result of hard work, study, and a sense of self-responsibility.

            Known originally as The Cipo Project (now the Cells of Cooperative Learning Project or PRECE), this is the place where young men and women, and adults, who have been neglected by the public school system in Brazil may work toward their first and second level certificates, and prepare to take the examinations to enter the Federal University of Ceará in Fortaleza.

            The university is basically free, but few public school students in Brazil are able to pass the entrance examination.  Most of the university students are from families who can afford private schools.  This has prolonged the socio-economic division between the rich and the poor.  About five to ten percent of the people in Brazil are wealthy.  They virtually own the country.  There is a small middle class.  The rest of the people are poor, very poor or extremely poor.

            Cipo is a small rural community where this project was started as an alternative school in the municipal district of Pentecoste, approximately 65 miles from the capital city of Fortaleza.  These are students from an extremely poor area of Brazil. Their families are farm workers and fisherman, or often they are unemployed.  More than 40 percent of the residents of the Pentecoste district are illiterate.  They have dropped out of school to try to earn a living, or they have been passed over by the poorly funded and inadequate public schools.

            My name is Gil Dietz.  I am a citizen of the United States of America, living in Muscatine, Iowa. I am a retired newspaper editor.  I have witnessed, photographed and interviewed people in many walks of life.

            It was my privilege in the summer of 2002 to spend two days and a night visiting with the students at Cipo. I returned for a similar visit in 2003, and spent the month of July 2004 teaching conversational English to a group of young adults who were on a break while studying for the university examinations. My wife and I were there in 2006 when a new “estudantorio” building was dedicated at Cipo.

            I was a guest of Dr. Manoel Andrade Neto, a professor of chemistry at the federal university in Fortaleza, and founder of the educational project that is located on the property where he was born and where his parents still live. Manoel knows and understand the plight of these people. Some of them live in mud-and-stick structures with dirt floors and no electricity.  Some have better cement buildings with cement floors and electricity, although the stove may be a wood fire in a raised corner of the kitchen room.

            I met Manoel Andrade in 2000 when he stayed in our home in Muscatine as part of a Presbyterian church exchange.  It had been a desire of mine to visit Manoel and the students of Cipo since our original meeting.  That wish was first fulfilled when a delegation from East Iowa visited Fortaleza and Cipo during the summer of 2002.

            The educational project at Cipo was started in 1994 with seven students. It has spread to 11 sites.  There are now more than 2,000 men and women of all ages working toward the common goal of going forward with their education. The numbers keep growing because of the success of this program. Now, in 2009, more than 350 students have passed the difficult exams to be admitted to higher education. Fifty four have already graduated from the university. The goal is for many of these students to return to their home communities as teachers, health workers, agronomists, or in other occupations to help improve the lives of their people.

            PRECE extends the hand of opportunity to people of all ages.  Many of these persons have been denied an education by an unjust social system and inadequate public schools. They are held back in lives of poverty, and cannot fully participate in their rightful heritage as citizens of a democracy.

            Manoel Andrade says it best in these words: “I can not accept this (economic) situation and these students do not accept the way they have been ignored or held back.  The students must gain knowledge to change their lives, beginning with our situation and out state. I believe only education can liberate our people.”

            PRECE can and does liberate people who have the dream of changing their lives through education.

By Gil Dietz

Muscatine, Iowa, USA

Students supported by partnership between PRECE and Compassion, are approved in the first phase of tests for the Federal State University.

              This past July, a partnership between Compassion, a non denominational, non-governmental organization, which its main goal is to release children from poverty all around the world, was firmed with PRECE. The main objective of the partnership was the preparation of a group of students selected from and supported by Compassion’s Church partners, for the 2010 Federal University entrance exam, so called: vestibular. A new class was formed using the Cooperative Learning methodology.

               After 3 months of preparation, from 31 students who were registered for the 2010 vestibular, ten were approved in the first phase and are still preparing for the second phase of tests. These are the names of the ones approved: Daniel Ferreira da Silva – Portuguese was the major of choice; Douglas Oliveira do Nascimento – Music Major; Edilene Gomes Sousa -  Science Major; Kátia Silva Aragão – Food Engineering Major; Rafaele Silva dos Santos – Portuguese Major; Taiane Maia Pereira – Library Studies Major; Antonio Tarcísio Rosalino Filho – Geology Major; Talita Nunes Pinheiro – Education Major; Valdenia B. da Silva –Education Major .

                The classes are being ministered in the dependencies of the Student Heart Institute, Juvenal Galeno St # 403, Benfica, where more than a hundred students from the different rural areas attended by PRECE are being preparated for the second phase of the tests.

 Translated by Mauricio Oliveira

190 students have been approved to advance to the second sessions of vestibular examinations of The Federal University of Ceará.

For the entrance examination of 2010 of the Federal University of Ceará, around 350 students are enrolled. Of these, 190 have been approved to advance to the second sessions of vestibular examinations, and 150 of those are from the rural areas of Ceará.

After the first approval, we usually bring the students to Fortaleza to prepare for the second time. This is because the teachers are academic students at the university, and they are involved in periods of proofs and testing themselves, so they cannot move to teach students in their municipal districts.

Today, more than 130 students are meeting at accommodations in several places in Fortaleza. These places have been arranged through the mobilization of the Team of Support to the Students. These students are preparing for the second round of the examinations, studying the specific disciplines of their chosen courses. These classes are being held in rooms of the Heart of Students Institute at Juvenal Galeno, 403-Benfica, and in nine rooms of classes given by FACED-University of Education of Ceará/UFC, also in Benfica.

Special thanks to Gil Dietz for the translation

PRECE's Global Results

In its 15 years of existence, the Program has already had outstanding success. More than 300 students have passed the difficult entrance examinations to be admitted to higher education. Forty have already graduated from the university, including three (3) with masters’ degrees, five (5) in master degree programs, three (3) in programs to receive doctor’s degrees, and three (3) specialists.

These results are quite significant when it is considered that all have originated from low-income rural communities in the interior of the state. The most important fact is that these persons (men and women) have learned the lessons of cooperation and solidarity that come from being engaged, voluntarily, in the program.

The program of PRECE established the Cooperative Popular Schools – EPCs, in 10 communities of the municipal districts of the State of Ceará that already have more than 600 students. These EPCs develop plans and activities of education. They produce critical mass to execute the Plan of Support to the Maintainable Local Development in each community.

Special thanks to Gil Dietz for the translation

Walking by faith, living by grace and serving by love.