Establishing a permanent dialog with women of all social classes since 1959 and with special emphasis on women from needy communities, a project called Citizenship for Women was created by LFIB. The Citizenship for Women project approaches the problems and difficulties that women encounter as women, mothers and single moms in charge of the house hold finances. It is a business project for women complete with classes on how to make custom jewelry. This project was aimed not only to promote financial independence but also to raise these women's self-esteem through cultural initiatives.
The women that are part of this project not only learn an income generating skill but are also given leisure activity opportunuties. They are taken to the museum, cinemas and theater.
Social Inclusion and Professionalism Project
“The financial independence of women is a first step towards their Citizenship”
1. "Caregiver Training Course to Assist Senior Citizens and People with Physical or Mental Special Needs"
 | | Worldwide there are growing numbers of people over the age of 65 years, and women, according to statistics, live on average four years longer than men.
According to the WHO — World Health Organization — life expectancy in Brazil is 68 years for men and 75 years for women. Programs to empower women is a constant concern of LFIB. Women's professional development and their social inclusion go hand in hand. LFIB, in partnership with RAI (Jewish Home for Assisted-Living), began a program in March 2011 to train women to become professional caregivers for the elderly, people with physical or mental special needs, in a home environment (Home Care) or hospital.
The general objectives of the course is to create a skilled labor force and to improve the quality of life for the elderly, while giving them a social life and extended family.
This is a jobs training course for people who did not complete high school. At the end of the 58 hour course, six out of ten people found jobs.
The instructor and coordinator of the course is also the manager for RAI, Daisy Ferreira. She is the director of the Irene Drummond Nursing School and specializes in Project Management at the Estacio de Sa School. For this course she opted to use an interdisciplinary team of teachers. The course will be taught twice a year.
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2. "Professionalization – Passport to Complete Citizenship"
It began in 2004 with the main objective to give skills to women from the needy communities of Rio de Janeiro. Since then, this project has reached hundreds of women. Women in the past had no profession but today they have begun to make a place for themselves in the job market.
With a method to earn their own money they were able to gain a broader vision of their possibilities as women, and most of all, as human beings affecting their communities as agents of change.
The LFIB created and funded this project completely. Our responsibilities included the locations, teachers, working materials, tools, transportation and insertion of their creations into the professional market.
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A group of women in action within the needy communities of ACARI, COMPLEXO DO ALEMÃO, VILA ALIANÇA, JARDIM BANGU, OSWALDO CRUZ, MINHA DEUSA E PRAZERES learning and working on their projects.
In 2005, the group presented their work at the largest charity fair in Rio de Janeiro's “Feira da Providencia” that was housed in the convention center. |
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The groups' work on display during the Rio Fashion Week – A business partnership with FIRJAN. |
This very successful group was invited to show their work during Rio de Janeiro's Fashion Week (the largest fashion event in Brazil). In July of 2006 and again in January and July of 2007 they showed their products and sold them to businesses throughout Brazil and other countries.
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The women's group combines the needy communities of the mountains LAGARTIXA, TERRA NOSTRA and CENTRO COMUNITÁRIO COSTA BARROS. They have successfully sold their products at several market fairs in Rio. In November of 2007, they participated in a school by the Roma Project (promoted by WIZO). And again in December of that same year at UERJ University fair during a literature fair at a Literature Congress sponsored by the university.
In 2008 their work was presented and sold at the annual NA AMAT Pioneiras fair which took place at the Clube Israelita Brasileiro - CIB. The work was done by groups from the communities of Caju and Jardim Bangu. |
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Women's group from CAJU, PARADA DE LUCAS, VILA BANGU, OSWALDO CRUZ, PRAZERE and VIDIGAL. Over the course of a year they learned how to make jewerely which improved their everyday lives.
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Sustainability
The course has a minimum duration of one year and the students sign a contract where they agree to assist classes. At the end of the program they teach what they have learned to other women and adolescent mothers in their communities. This is done in partnership with ABIC – Brazilian Coffee Association.
3. Heath and Life Project
Actively supporting the fight against cancer since 1999, the Liga Feminina Israelita do Brasil has sponsored gynecological prevention and cancer screening for women from needy communities like Chapéu Mangueira, Babilônia, Morro dos Cabritos e Cantagalo, Pavão e Pavãozinho, in partnership with Mario Kroeff Hospital and Gamboa Hospital.
The statistics show that 87% of women who live in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro have never had preventive screening for cancer (ages 18 to 76). The United Nations reports on the incidences of cancer in underdeveloped countries is endemic exclusively because of the lack of prevention screening tests. In 2004, research predicted that 402,190 new cases of cancer in Brazil resulted in 126,969 deaths of women.
LFIB goes into these communities with a mobile unit equipped with all the necessary materials, accompanied by doctors and nurses. It has seen 90% of the women in several communities because of the success of this project. But because of the increasing need and growth of the population, LFIB needs to partner with other NGOS to be able to service the other 28 communities.
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Sponsoring the Gynecological Cancer Screening Exams to the women of the needy communities in partnership with the Mario Kroeff Hospital. |
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The project sponsors a well equipped mobile unit in each community accompanied by 3 doctors and 2 nurses providing comfort and efficiency for the women in the field. |
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From June 2000 to April 2002 most of the women in the communities of Pavão, Pavãozinho, Cabrito, Chapéu Mangueira, Babilônia and Cantagalo had been seen and helped. |
4. Ester Schwartz's International Women’s Day Project
The LFIB choose the International Women’s Day Project as the representative day of full citizenship for needy women in Rio de Janeiro. Full citizenship is merely a philosophy until women can enjoy life in a modern society, such as access to culture and the arts. So in 2002, LFIB celebrated this day by taking women from the communities of Babilônia, Chapéu Mangueira, Morro dos Cabritos, Cantagalo, Pavão and Pavãozinho to the movies, theater and museums.
The main objective of this project was to put pressure on the State and Municipal Secretaries of Culture to celebrate March 8th (the International Women’s Day) by having all the cinemas, museums and theaters open to needy women especially the women who live in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro.
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Celebrated on the first Sunday of March every year, LFIB used International Women's Day to take women from Rio de Janeiro to hear classical music at the Museum of Modern Art in 2009. |
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On International Women’s Day, LFIB has taken hundreds of women to the movies, theaters and museums. |
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More than 80% of the women in the needy communities of Rio de Janeiro have never gone to the theater or museums. |
Children's Citzenship Project
With the belief that citizenship begins with the very young and should start when they take their first steps, LFIB has built and supports quality professionals and day care centers, pre-k programs and educational programs for children. Since 1976 LFIB has created opportunities for children in needy communities developing the project "Man and its destiny".
1. Education Project
Children — Education — Citizenship
 | | LFIB installed youth libraries in the Municipal Schools of Rio de Janeiro. |
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Each school was given between 500 and 2000 books of the best authors of National and International literature. Some of the schools in this project were Cícero Penna, Alencastro Guimarães and Castelnuovo, Pedro Alvarez Cabral, Escola Cócio Barcelos, Escola M. Thomas de Aquino. |
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The Education Project also opened youth libraries in the Municipal Public Schools of Rio de Janeiro like: David Perez, Estado de Israel, Pintor Lazar Segal, Wolf Klabin, Herbert Moses. |
1. Presbiterian Home — equipt their daycare center as they need it
2. Project S.O.S — Benefit to support APAE (Parent Assoc. for Special Needs Children)
3. Israeli Hospital Albert Sabin — mantained by LFIB for 28 years.
4. Home of Israeli Children Rosa Waissman — 30 years of sponsorship
5. State Institute Benjamin Constant — 20 years of maintenance with volunteers following the students from the beginning of their education until graduation. They graduated lawyers, musicians, teachers, system annalists. They donated to the Institute, a library of all kinds of tapes so they would become self-sufficient.
6. Paróquia Santa Cruz Daycare — LFIB helped to build, mantanin and supervise the center's atendence.
7. Tia Ciara Project — supported street children.
8. Educating Children so they could attain their full citizenship — built and funded for 5 years, a school in the community of the mountains of Babilonia situated in Leme for 186 children, from age 3 through 16 years.
9. MCJM Daycare — founded in 1980 for 100 children ages 3 to 6 years old in Bras de Pina (Cordovil- RJ).
10. David Peres School — LFIB built and equipt 10 rooms of daycare.
11. Rio Public Schools — Organized and financed educational courses for students and their parents.
12. Pregnant Women — Periodic distribution of new born kits of clothes and baby accessories for women in need.
13. Acquiring Identification and Working Papers — this was done in partnership with LBA (Brazilian Legion of Goodwill) in mobile Units helping parents of needy children.
14. Medical Care — in partnership with the Red Cross providing cancer screenings and X-rays for 1800 people.
15. Celebrating the Brazilian Children’s Day Holiday, LFIB took very poor children living in the western portion of Rio de Janeiro to see the ocean for the first time. Transportation and lunches were provided by the Elieser Steinbarg School.
16. Public Schools — LFIB donated State and Municipal Flags answering a request from the schools.
17. Deolindo Couto Educational Center — LFIB adopted this institution with 360 mentally and physically impaired children of all ages.
18. Campaign against Hunger and Misery — LFIB was the first institution to support the initiative of sociologist Betinho.
19. Golden Age Group — it was a project with the purpose to implement leisure activity for the elderly.
20. Yiddish Club — dedicated to give continuity to the jewish culture.
21. Funabem — LFIB organized campaigns from 1976-1986 recruiting doctors, dentists and labs to donate their services to the boys of this institution.
22. Women’s Prison — LFIB organized professional training for the inmates at the correction institutions of Talavera Bruce and Romero Netto.
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