Football for the Next Generation & Educational TV for All

Belford Roxo – the home of Bayer operations in Brazil since 1958 – is located in the northern most outskirts of the pulsing metropolis of Rio de Janeiro, embedded in a mixed residential and industrial area. This municipality is about as quiet as the heart of Rio. Around a half-million residents live in this area of approximately 80 square kilometres. The Baixada Fluminense, to which Belford Roxo belongs, is one of the most dangerous regions of Brazil.

Creating Hope

Even among the athletes at the football school are a few students that have a criminal history as petty thieves. Therefore, these students were either kicked out of school or just dropped out. Without the football school these students would suffer the fate of the majority of Brazil’s workforce: The average receives just over four years of grammar school education.

The consequences of this lack of education are concerning, like a striking but impressive example out of the recently published study, “Pulso Brasil.” The study asked Brazilians to locate their country, the largest in South America, on a world map. Every third person gave up; two percent shipped Brazil to the Kongo and one percent to Chad.

Indeed, in the mean time almost all Brazilian children are attending grammar school, while continuing education schools, in contrast, seem not to be as attractive or important. Brazil is in dire need of reform; after all, the President Luiz da Silva plans to increase spending for the nation’s schools to around three billion Euros in the next few years.

Canal Futura as a Multiplier

Bayer Schering views education as a part of its social responsibility in Brazil and has supported for more than five years, until the beginning of 2007 under the name Schering, the not-for-profit Roberto-Marinho Foundation. This foundation drives a full array of social projects: the spectrum includes adult education, substance abuse education courses and classes in the conservation of the nation’s cultural treasures.

In addition, the nation’s most important educational television station, Canal Futura, was founded as an initiative from the former Schering Company. The station broadcasts around the clock, reaching around 73 million Brazilians and has on average 33 million viewers, the majority of which are young. The station is allotted in Rio de Janeiro in several fully equipped studios. In order to broadcast its message and to initiate concrete projects, Canal Futura developed its own individual method of communication which is based on the principle of ‘social networks’. For example, the station produces a report about a social project which is broadcast on television, this program in turn is used as an educational tool for social organizations and schools. In return, Canal Futura receives from these institutions ideas for new projects, about which Canal Futura reports. The result is a growing network of socially active partners who are connected to the entire nation through television and who through which will become publicly known. Currently, there are over 13,000 institutions in Brazil working with Canal Futura. Nationwide, more than two million people use the educational tools regularly.

Such opportunities that offer a direct and uncomplicated entry to education are sorely needed in Brazil. At the moment, Brazil, with its three percent rate of growth, is bringing up the rear of Latin America. In order to continue to grow, the nation needs not only adequate conditions for investors, but also a well educated workforce.

Training and Learning for the World Cup 2014

Canal Futura has already reported on the football school in Belford Roxo which has been around since 1993. Now, there is another reason to report on the school: a recent agreement with the regional University UNIABEU allows student athletes between the ages of 10-20 to regularly participate in courses that aim to improve the students’ faculty of expression in spoken and written word. The courses are taught by professors from the humanities faculty. The cooperation is another step closer to better education; a declared goal of Bayer Brazil.

A young player confirms the success of the courses: “My friends and I want to later become professional football players, but my first dream has already come true – the football school took me from the streets and motivated my parents to send me back to school.”

This commitment has not gone unnoticed over the years: In 2005, the then-Brazilian national trainer, Carlos Alberto Parreira, was impressed by the football school during his visit. The school helps the community in raising their children and showing the youth that their dreams can become a reality. At the time, Parreira explained to the young football players that it is a huge chance for them to be able to participate in the football school.