A COMMUNITY THAT CARES
History of the Anglican Institute
Content provided by the Anglican Institute | www.catedral-anglicana.org.br
T
he Anglican Institute was instituted on 23rd November 1997, under the coordination of Reverend Aldo Quintão and is considered to be the social arm of the community of St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral which has the mission to attend any person in a situation of necessity primarily through community work in their social projects. The first project was the creation of the Centre for Infant Education Lina Rodrigues in July 1999. This project attended the families of the Paraisópolis communities, or more precisely the inhabitants of the “Grotão” and surroundings. Paraisópolis features amongst the largest slums in São Paulo in both area and number of inhabitants and certainly is found at the top of the list of human poverty and the precarious conditions of their homes, basic sanitation, education and relaxation. The families attended by the crèche have an extremely low buying power as well as the common factor of being numerous
(having many children) sustained by a single woman (the mother). The level of education is low while the level of unemployment is high.
300m2 was added in October 2011 bringing the total area constructed to 3,700m2 and offering a capacity to attend 478 children.
In January 2001, the second project of the Centre for Infant Education was implanted which also received the name of Lina Rodrigues – unit II. This was situated in the community of Parque Belém in Vila Brasilândia, a region known for the privation of the population and the high indices of violence. In 2009, the Centre for Infant Education Julian Thomas in Jaguaré was added to the number of crèches supervised by the Anglican Institute. At present both of these crèches no longer are directly administered by the Anglican Institute, but receive help should they request it.
In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the project, two more crèches were inaugurated on the same site in March 2010, the Centre for Infant Education Ana Paula Quintão and the Centre for Infant Education Cristina Nardinelli with the result that the Anglican Institute began to attend 1.000 children aged 0 to 5 years, becoming the biggest crèche in São Paulo with 7.400 m2.
In July 2010, the Centre for Infant Education Renata Eugênia Rodrigues was inaugurated in Morumbi/Paraisópolis with 3,400m2 of construction. Another wing of
The children and teachers receive a free course of English offered by the Cultura Inglesa. Five thousand meals are offered daily which results in a monthly consumption of one ton of beans and rice, 800 kilos of meat, 434 kilos of powdered milk, 600 kilos of vegetables and 16 thousand bread rolls. In 2015, the Anglican Institute decided to expand its activities into the interior of the State of São Paulo. The first crèche was opened in the city of Botucatu where the Cathedral has a sister church. Owing to the excellent service offered by the Anglican Institute, the number of crèches in Botucatu and surrounding towns has expanded to seven where nearly one thousand children are attended. ◼
Paraisópolis Building, São Paulo, SP | Unidade Paraisópolis, São Paulo, SP
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British Society São Paulo | Fundação Britanica de Beneficência | Spotlight N° 131
