Growing…
Shortly after we started the Meninos de Luz Day Care, with only 35 students, the need for continued schooling grew. As our children got older, we initiated more classes, year after year, thus facing the challenge of acquiring more room to house the ever-growing number of students.
Initially, we went to the building located at 51 Pavãozinho Street. It was acquired at the early stages of our project (1987), through auctions and charity sales at “Lar Paulo de Tarso” (Paulo de Tarso home). For many years, this space allowed assistance to families, but it would now house our Elementary School.
With the growing violence in the community, we were faced with no choice but to leave the building. Violence was a great concern in general in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and this context was the starting point of “Reage Rio” (React Rio) movement, where artists, favela leaders and union members promoted a march for peace in downtown Rio de Janeiro, inviting children, babies, families and volunteers from Solar Meninos de Luz and Lar Paulo de Tarso to march alongside them.
In the meantime, we continued our search for a solution to give continuity to our classes, and it was then that Marinês appeared. A model who was leaving the country, she was the owner of the property located at nº 188 (Pink House), and offered us the keys to the house for the time she would not be in need of the property.
In 1996, we formed our first alphabetizing class, and in 1997 we started the “Escola Meninos de Luz”, from alphabetizing class to 4th grade.
