The Happy Seeds project, developed by the NGO Instituto Melhores Dias, aims to improve the living conditions of young people with physical and mental disabilities at two schools located in areas of extreme poverty in the Belo Horizonte region.
The project's ethos is to forge links between the schools and the region's communities and residents in order to disseminate best practices and create lasting benefits. To this end, a network of workshops (on violence and drug prevention, gardening and nutrition) is being developed and run by the community with the aim of raising residents' awareness of the need to protect and support people with disabilities.
The project also includes an educational and therapeutic component based around gardening. A sensory garden is being created at both schools, allowing young disabled people to stimulate their senses and gain confidence. The other aim of the school garden is to help change families' eating habits by encouraging them to consume their own produce... and ultimately create their own garden.
Instituto Melhores Dias worked on this project in partnership with the Red Cross, which provided a team of professionals specialising in childhood and intellectual disability. Instituto Melhores Dias has been working with Brazil's poorest communities since 1993.
Role of the ENGIE Foundation
The Foundation supported the project in 2017 for a period of one year. This partnership is part of a close collaboration with Instituto Melhores Dias. See the
Clean Water-Healthy Children and
Children and Healthy Communities projects.
