SOCIAL ACTION

BACKGROUND

The Itatinga Community Center came to life around 1992, when Maria de Lurdes Teixeira Brito Cordeiro (Lurdinha) began doing volunteer work at the local Catholic church.

OBJECTIVE

The objective was to provide food for needy families in her neighborhood.

THE DREAM

She dreamed of having someplace clean, with flowers, trees, pets, and especially food, love, and affection to offer to needy children.

THE PLACE

In mid-1999 the City government gave Lurdinha a piece of property located at the foot of the Itatinga landfill, around which a waste transshipment facility operates.

The place had three multi-purpose rooms, two bathrooms, and an office.

It was the beginning of the Itatinga Community Center, a lifeline for mothers who were unable to find placement in daycare centers and schools in the region but needed to work and had no one to take care of their children.

ICC

Currently, the Itatinga Community Center welcomes over 150 children.

PARTNERING

The ICC now counts on support from certain individuals as well as partnering arrangements with certain companies.

CURRENT STRUCTURE

Four classrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining hall, a covered playground, a playroom, a movie theater, a library, a bakery, an art workshop, and a chapel.