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Projeto Axé

Methodology


Projeto Axé works with children and adolescents from the streets, accompanying and supporting them in a pedagogical process that encourages them to dream and to desire. The ability to desire is proof of the presence of vital energy in a person. On the streets and in other situations of poverty and hardship children usually lose all hope and believe they have nothing to lose. It is extremely difficult to help them overcome this situation: they are only able to abandon the streets if they are trusted and if they themselves are convinced that they can succeed.

Projeto Axé’s methodology is based on three core beliefs: “Ethics as a way of life and example for the young students; Aesthetics as a fundamental right of all children; the triple principle by which children become Subjects, hopes and desires are the guarantee of “being alive” and Rights have greater value if always accompanied by the idea and practice of Responsibilities.” This methodology draws on the thinking of Piaget, Freud and Lacan and is based on the work of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire..
There is nothing better than Art to provide the constant stimulus to dream and desire; ArtEducation, meaning education in the Arts, is the most useful support for implementing the Pedagogy of hopes and desires.



Projeto Axé’s educational structures (Street education and Units) are privileged places for the pursuit of play, of creativity, of the symbolic expression of desires, fears and fantasies, for coming together in different ways, by promoting access to the various art forms, to ethics and aesthetics. In Projeto Axé the pedagogical methodology is geared towards a conception of the student as the Subject of desires, cognition and rights.

In Projeto Axé the basic premise of the pedagogical project is to help the students to develop a personal and social life project.