Street education forms the basis of Projeto Axé’s pedagogical methodology; active in the streets and squares of Salvador, it operates through the “art of doing”: games and educational, recreational and artistic activities. In addition there is a bus, Axèbuzù, which positions itself in critical parts of the city and is appropriately equipped with a small collection of books and films, enabling the operators to receive the children and start interacting with them.
The street is the place for early education: open-air schooling, small musical performances and animation are all used to help the children express interest and desire and the educators to initiate dialogue.

Through games and the construction of toys the children give symbolic expression to desires, fantasies, fears, sadness and joy, increasing their own repertory of experience. The aim is to educate them to be transforming agents of their own reality (social, cognitive, historical).

Note: The Building Yard of Desires is currently suspended due to the lack of funding needed to renovate the premises. The aim is obviously to reopen this Unit – a fundamental “way in” to Projeto Axé – as soon as possible, “not only because it is painful not to have it any more, but also because without it Projeto Axé and its educational method are incomplete” (Cesare de Florio La Rocca).

The youngsters generally come from family contexts characterised by poverty and unemployment, with the attendant problems of violence, drugs, alcohol and prostitution. Projeto Axé works with their families and communities to re-establish an emotional and psychological bond with at least one person, who acts as a point of reference and is very often a woman (mother, grandmother, aunt, friend, neighbour…).
The Family, Youth and Community Co-ordinating Committee provides the bridge between the students and their families; Projeto Axé works hard with the families, but always “on behalf” of the students. The initial contact takes place directly in the family home, where the Committee’s social workers are accompanied by the youngsters: this is the starting point for dialogue (which then continues on Projeto Axé’s premises) and listening to understand their story. Attention is then turned to matters concerning the youngsters’ health, documents, legal pendencies, schooling, etc.
Projeto Axé meets regularly with the families to inform them of, and monitor, the youngsters' progress, but also to make them aware of fundamental rights (health care, prevention, social benefits, safety); its work includes educating the families themselves to develop their knowledge and culture. To this end the Family, Youth and Community Co-ordinating Committee organises regular meetings and events involving individual families or groups.

It also provides legal support – both civil and criminal – to youngsters who are perpetrators or victims or crime (nowadays particularly violence and drugs).
The Rights Protection Co-ordinating Committee informs the children and youngsters of their rights (lessons on the Statute of the Child and Adolescent) and entitlement to subsidies and state assistance and instructs them in ethics, citizenship and responsibilities.
The youngsters are always the primary beneficiaries of Projeto Axé’s legal training, which is subsequently extended to their families with education in children's rights protection, entitlement to subsidies and in particular how to obtain the documents needed to access information and fundamental rights.
Projeto Axé also uses the expertise acquired in the field of Law to provide training for, and exchange ideas with, public institutions and other social organisations, especially NGOs, at annual meetings on research and intervention activities.

which benefits both in-house and external operators, with over 900 people having received instruction in its methodology.
The training offered by Projeto Axé is intense and lasting, involving an ongoing process of learning that combines theoretical and practical knowledge to improve the competence of the educator and of the project in general and to promote interdisciplinarity (Practice Analysis meetings are held once a fortnight).
Projeto Axé’s aim is to reinforce its own pedagogical skills as well as to spread its principles and pedagogical methodology among as many operators as possible. This is achieved through seminars, courses, apprenticeships, technical visits and consulting for other NGOs, government organisations, schools, universities, hospitals and other public institutions, and it is the expression of a concrete political pedagogy aimed at increasing the number of people working in the sector, rather than simply reproducing the Projeto Axé model elsewhere.
In recent years requests for training have come from beyond Salvador, including from other countries.
Negli ultimi anni le domande ricevute dal Centro di Formazione e dai servizi da questo offerti hanno oltrepassato i limiti di Salvador per abbracciare altri stati e altri paesi. The Training Centre is the point of contact between Projeto Axé and society.