Casa da Criança e do Adolescente

Brincalhona

Assistance and protection for child and adolescent victims of violence

Casa da Criança e do Adolescente was created to support children and adolescents from the municipality of Volta Redonda, where communities show a high rate of human rights violations and violence against children and adolescents. There is a great demand for assistance and protection services for victims of social and domestic violence. Founded in 1996, the Casa assisted more than 600 children in its first two years; today, it assists more than 4,000 children and adolescents per year.

To offer support for the survivors, the Casa da Criança e do Adolescente created the “Brincalhona” program, a mobile toy exchange that will be implemented in 40 communities that are in a state of extreme vulnerability; the purpose is to identify potential cases of violence or abuse by having kids interact with toys and games. After mapping behavior patterns according to this technique, home visits to selected families will be scheduled for diagnostic purposes and for closer monitoring and assistance.

IMPACT

With the support from BrazilFoundation, the project will:

• Encourage children to play;
• Compile lessons-learned based on the observed interactions;
• Promote the discussion of concrete questions on the daily lives of these children;
• Map the need for special assistance of children and educate family members so that they may address disabilities with eyesight, cognition, communication and issues with domestic violence.

“While violence against our children and impunity exist side-by-side, we will  continue to do our best so that these children and their families have support.” – Sister Elizabeth Alves, president of Casa da Criança