Rio's Miracle School
In Rio's chaotic favelas, most children receive an education only in violence. But deep in one of Rio's toughest neighbourhoods, one inspirational woman is fighting to provide an alternative.
"People spat on me and said that I shouldn't be here, that I'm educating bandits in the favelas", Yvonne Bezerra de Mello says about the response she got for providing an education to some of the city's poorest residents. Classes range from capoeira to learning the violin. The lessons are short to compensate for limited attention spans and damaged short-term memory, the result of witnessing traumatic events. This Rio school takes on a holistic approach to teaching its students that they would be hard-pushed to find elsewhere on the streets.
Produced by Dateline, SBS Australia
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