“Compassiva‘s volunteer teachers are often the first contact refugees have with our work. In other words, they are the first step towards the bonds that are formed and, therefore, essential”, says Débora Blair, coordinator of the LAR – Levando Ajuda ao Refugiado (LAR – Bringing Help to Refugees) program, which offers Portuguese classes for refugees in São Paulo.
Currently, there are 39 volunteer teachers at the head of the classes. Much more than Portuguese, for Débora, who started at Compassiva working also as a teacher, it is not just Portuguese that they teach to the beneficiaries.
“They also welcome them in their transition process to a new society and culture,” says Débora. “They ease the difficulties along the way, becoming the new family of refugees. Bonds of trust and friendship are created”.
For 3 years, retired teacher Neuza Bento has been teaching at LAR. After 27 years working in public education, she was introduced to Compassiva through her daughter, who was also a volunteer. She found the opportunity to continue teaching.
“A teacher never stops being a teacher. Many said it is not a priesthood, but I believe it is”, she says. For her, the cause of refugees is fundamental. “It is very important to help them with the language issue, which is strengthening them as people in this world, far from the country where they were born”.
Volunteer teacher Vânia Leão met Compassiva in 2015. She had a quick chat with André Leitão, director of Compassiva, and her Anthropology teacher. She met a Syrian refugee and wanted to give her high school students the proximity to the Syrian War.
“The war gained a beautiful face, from a suffering young woman, who only spoke Arabic and English. And I didn’t speak either language,” she recalls. Vânia decided to study the English language. After having the experience of being a foreigner living for a year in South Africa, she returned to Brazil with the desire to get involved in Compassiva‘s activities:
“I learn to teach them. I don’t need to have all the complex answers our grammar brings. I know learning as an adult is embarrassing (we don’t want to make mistakes in front of others). So, I wonder, how good it would be for someone to ‘give a hand’ to us and welcome us, in a different place, because simple and obvious things for us become a great challenge for those who are not from here. I love teaching! Even through whatsapp, it’s wonderful to see their overcoming!”
We want to thank our volunteers who teach Portuguese at LAR. Faced with the challenges that the pandemic brought us, each teacher made an effort to adapt the classes in video format, so that our students would not be left without their studies.
