Conti supporting ‘Favelas’ project in Brazil

Kick off at the opening match of the next World Cup is just over 14 months away, and Germany’s Continental AG is once again a sponsor of the FIFA-organised event. As part of its World Cup involvement, Continental has committed itself to the UERE education project in the Favelas, or the Baixa do Sapateiro slum district of Rio de Janeiro. The UERE project targets children and youths aged between 4 and 18, and over a three-year period Continental will use the media attention the football world’s premier event will give Brazil to raise the profile of UERE and what the project has achieved.

“The considerable enthusiasm and passion shown by the whole team for the pedagogical approach used in the UERE project, borne of lengthy scientific studies, has impressed us all immensely,” stated Silke Gliemann, Continental’s sponsorship project manager for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. “We not only want to help the UERE children with our financial support and involvement in the e-learning module, but also make other organisations aware of this exemplary approach because we are convinced that it could also help raise the prospects of many other disadvantaged children in other major cities.”

Up until the end of 2015, Continental will also fund teaching staff and equipment for a football project that gives UERE children the opportunity to play football safely and under supervision in the immediate vicinity of where the project is run.

UERE founder and principal Yvonne Bezerra de Mello explains the UERE-Mello method as follows: “We tailored our concept quite specifically to the abilities and needs of our children. For example, we almost exclusively offer interactive learning modules with a duration of 20 minutes so that children who suffer from learning blocks as the result of some lasting trauma can also take in the content. We help all UERE children to become responsible citizens and our aim is to give them prospects so that they can lead worthwhile lives. In 2009, our concept was acknowledged and recommended by the Brazilian Ministry of Education. Since then, we have trained teachers from 150 schools in other socially disadvantaged areas of Rio de Janeiro.” Bezerra de Mello has a PhD in Philology and Linguistics.