THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: People in northeastern Brazil are involved in a community effort to care for its children. In the region where poverty is rampant, it's easy for kids to fall into a life crime, drugs and violence. UNTV reports on how one town is teaching its children to defy the odds.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE WHITEHOUSE, UNTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Camilla Barbosa Ramos, a lively 10-year-old, is starting her day. She leaves her parents' home on the outskirts of Aracaju, the capital of Sergipe state in northeastern Brazil, and walks to her neighborhood school.
This district housing many migrants from other Brazilian states and the countryside is one of Aracaju's poorest. Unemployment is rampant, and those who do work do so in the so-called informal economy. As a result, crime and drugs are widespread, and violence is common.
But Camilla's school is anything but ordinary. Kids here are highly motivated and very few have ever dropped out. The Dulia Teles (ph) primary school has 600 pupils. The strategy is to work at improving children's self-esteem.
OSVALDINA RIBEIRO, SCHOOL DIRECTOR (through translator): One of the basic problems here is violence. We have to operate within this context. But thanks to the work we have done with local families involving parents, members of the community, and the students' help in running the school, the violence that exists outside the school walls does not appear within the school.
WHITEHOUSE: Funding comes from state and federal authorities, but the school's main asset is the involvement of the entire community in their children's education. Recently it won a UNISEF's sponsored prize given to the best-managed schools in all of Brazil.
Students excel here.
CAMILLA BARBOSA RAMOS, STUDENT (through translator): My grades are good. My teachers tell me I am doing very well.
WHITEHOUSE: Recently, UNICEF reported that Sergipe's child development index is the highest in Brazil's northeastern region.
The Sergipe's state governor is justifiably proud of the success achieved by his state in the field of children's education.
GOV. ALBANO FRANCO, SERGIPE STATE, BRAZIL (through translator): I was extremely happy to read in the UNICEF report that as far as enrollment of children in preschools is concerned, Sergipe came out on top of the entire country, with almost 76 percent of enrollment of the state's children. As far as preschool education in Brazil goes, we are on top of the list.
WHITEHOUSE: This year, the world is celebrating the 10th anniversary of UNICEF's Rights of the Child. The Brazilian state of Sergipe has provided that poverty is not necessarily an impediment to school excellence.
For U.N. Television, this report was prepared by Steve Whitehouse and Chaim Matewski (ph) for the CNN WORLD REPORT.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
|
![[CNN.com]](http://i.cnn.net/cnn/images/newsnet/cnnlogo.gray.gif){kind=small}
TOP STORIES![[SI.com]](http://i.cnn.net/cnn/images/main/si.logo.gif){kind=logo}
SPORTS
All Scoreboards
![[CNN Money]](http://i.cnn.net/cnn/images/main/fn.logo.newsnet.gif){kind=logo}
(