Christine has been called to serve through the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission Program as an individual volunteer in Brazil for one to two years, beginning in October 2005. She will be volunteering with the Shade and Fresh Water (Sombra e Água Fresca) Project in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state of Minas Gerais.

What is the Shade and Fresh Water Project?
In the face of a mammoth social crisis, the Brazilian Methodist Church made children its "number one priority" and created the Shade and Fresh Water Project as a national network to assist local Methodist churches to develop activities for children as an alternative to the streets. The goal is to provide supervised activities that help young people become healthy citizens and gain an exposure to Christian values. Every local church is challenged to organize an after-school program for children and teenagers between 6 and 14 years of age that follows national guidelines promoting healthy physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social development. Established by the National Coordination for Social Action office of the Methodist Church in Brazil, the project currently serves more than 5,000 children in more than 60 locations.

How do the local projects work?
The church and community come together to pinpoint their problems and become partners in building a healthier society. Each local church meets with children and their families to identify priorities for an educational program. Together they develop activities in the area of Christian education, academic support, sports and recreation, culture and artistic expression, health, citizenship and/or computer education. To be part of the Shade and Fresh Water network, the program must offer a minimum of regular recreation, academic support and Christian education activities.

Local projects are integrated into a regional and national network that allows them to share their needs and successes. Project educators meet with their peers from other projects to share experiences and gain program resources. Today, Methodist volunteers are reaching thousands of children that otherwise would be left on their own. Shade and Fresh Water is the Brazilian Methodist Church's response to sharing God's love with children in need.

Why is there such a need for this project?
Starting in the 1940s and peaking during the military dictatorship (1964-1982), tens of millions of rural people migrated to the cities in search of a better life. This rural exodus undermined Brazil's social fabric and family structure and had a profoundly negative impact on children's lives. Slums around the edges of all major cities were built without adequate sanitation, health treatment facilities or schools.

Now the Brazilian family is in crisis. Millions of parents leave home early in the morning in the struggle to find ways to support their families. They work long hours trying to earn money for food and shelter for their family but have little time for their children. Left alone while their parents are working, many children prepare their own meals, get themselves to school, care for younger siblings and take responsibility for the home. Sometimes seven-year-old children have full household responsibilities--cleaning, laundry and attending to health needs of themselves and their siblings. With a mere four hours spent in school each day and without adult supervision, children often head to the streets to play, get food, and oftentimes to meet people who introduce them to a life of drugs, crime and prostitution.

Why the name "Shade and Fresh Water?"
This Methodist program seeks to provide true signs of God's love for children and youth by responding to their needs and giving them a chance to know the Christian message. The church adopted a popular Brazilian expression that conveys a desire to find a place that provides protection from life's harsh realities. Shade is a place to rest our bodies from the brutal sun and water quenches our thirst. It is a place of protection that allows people the opportunity to grow. This easily understood phrase also has profound biblical allusions. Shade represents the protection and care the church offers to children. Fresh water carries the biblical image of God's cleansing, transformation and renewal.

The Brazilian Methodist Church responds to children's needs

"The Methodist Church affirms its Christian responsibility for the holistic well-being of all people as an inherent part of its fidelity to the Word of God as expressed in the New and Old Testament scriptures." Social Creed of the Brazilian Methodist Church

For nearly a century, the Brazilian Methodist Church has maintained projects that respond to the needs of children and teenagers. With a burgeoning social crisis and the return to democracy in the 1980s and 1990s, the Methodist church began many new projects responding to the social problems caused by the rapid process of urbanization. Churches, social organizations and political leaders created a broad movement seeking legal protection for children. Today, Brazil has an advanced legal code protecting the rights of children and teenagers. The well-being of children and youth, however, is not something at can be achieved by local decree. A healthy society is built by the collective effort of families, organizations, businesses, churches and the government.