Instituto Fazer Acontecer (IFA) bimonthly bulletin, NGO that has been supporting sport from an educational perspective in popular communities of State of Bahia since 2004. Currently, it serves around 350 teenagers in projects in communities of Paz, Calabar and Recanto Feliz neighborhoods in Salvador-BA. For further information, click on www.fazeracontecer.org.br or www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwp40HG6HiY
IFA in "Sports for all" Congress

Renato Paes de Andrade, IFA coordinator, participated in the world’s most important congress that regards sport as a means of social inclusion, patronaged by the International Olympic Committee and World Health Organization. Sports for All was held in November past in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and gathered over 50 sport professionals from all over the world. Renato Andrade represented IFA and presented his article “The security factor in Brazilian public spaces as a hindrance to the sport practice of children and teenagers from low-income communities”. The participation in Sports for All highlighted the institute, thanks to the networking with a variety of international organizations interested in partnering with NGOs from countries in development. Renato Andrade’s participation was sponsored by Fluxo Oil Services, Worktime Business Consulting and by his own resources. Furher information about the congress: www.sportforall-congress.eu/
   
 
Andrea Lynch visits Calabar group
IFA received the visit of Andrea Lynch, representative of Empower, an American organization from New York and one of IFA’a sponsors. Last November, Andrea followed the activities of the group from Calabar neighborhood: participated in the citizenship classes, observed the basketball classes, visited the participants’ families and the community. She got quite impressed: “I found IFA’s work to be estimulating. It was easy to observe how deeply valued the program is by the youngsters who participate – teenagers with low access to entertainment, few public spaces and few opportunities of participating in sport programs that value cooperation rather than competition. Lynch stresses that “it was wonderful to see such diversity of young people – boys and girls, older and younger, those with a strong athletic aptitude and those who strive to not give in – by playing and learning altogether, with respect for diversity”.
 
Training of teachers in the semi-arid
 

Last December, Renato Paes de Andrade participated in the evaluation seminar of UNICEF Approved City Seal Program. Renato Andrade lectured about the experience of training teacher around 188 cities of Bahia State semi-arid, that allowed himu to listen sport-related experiences in a number of cities throgh that training.

In the third week of December, coordinator Renato Paes de Andrade and teacher Wagner Rossi visited two cities, Riachão do Jacuipe and Valente, and started the networking for the 30-hour training for teachers and individuals interested in the fostering of communitarian sport. This pilot project is the fruit of a new partnership with UNICEF, and will allow the fostering of similar projects in a number of municipalities in the semi-arid. “The training on education sport was a huge success. Programs such as IFA did here in Riachão do Jacuipe are fundamental for the development of the city and the population. Pedro Paulo Santos, focal point of Riachão do Jacuípe municipality for issues related to Approved City Seal Program, describes that achievement: “the community realized that it knows how to work with children and teenagers in sport.”

 
 
Seamless activities in 2008
The activities of the groups of Recanto Feliz, Calabar and Bairro da Paz were deployed seamlessly during last year, with little disturbance. The classes finished on December 19 and come back this March.