Charity

Street Angels was founded in 1988 by Canadian social worker Miriam Ulrych along with Luiz Barbosa, and Josefa Santos. The original aim was to keep as many children as possible off the streets of Salvador, Bahia Brazil – from these humble beginnings, the project has grown into an efficient grass roots network with support spanning Canada, Brazil and the UK.

The efforts of the Street Angels consortium have been focused on Dona Aurora, a small community on the outskirts of Salvador, Brazil. When the project began working in this community, the 2000 mostly illiterate and unemployed residents were living in crowded shack housing and lacked basic amenities such as clean drinking water, electricity, rubbish collection, health care and schooling for their children.

On a shoestring budget, Street Angels has managed to provide security and opportunity for the children of Dona Aurora and create a wider sense of community and self sufficiency for all residents.

Thanks to the incredible hard work and perseverance of our Brazilian project leaders and team of dedicated volunteers, we have achieved many amazing successes:

- Clean water, electricity and refuse collection services
- Improved living conditions through the construction and renovation of housing
- Construction of a modern elementary school
- Subsidized primary education through a unique fostering education Program
- Built, equipped and maintained a community health centre providing free, front-line care to over 1,500 women and children annually
- Facilitated the development of five active self-help and community development groups
- Constructed a training centre and organized dozens of skill-building and small business initiatives to help generate alternatives to child labour
- Increased public awareness about the exploitation, abuse and murder of children who are forced by poverty to live and work in the streets
- Helped strengthen the communities capacity to defend their basic human rights.

 

UK Registered Charity No. 1058096