San Michele Arcangelo – Il Padre Pellegrino

The Opera St Michael Archangel is located in Brazil at Barbacena in the Minas Gerais region. The activity of St. Michael Archangel opera is not institutional, but based on the values of the Family and, as in a large family, they take utmost care of the educative path of the welcomed children. Childhood sufferance leaves marks that only a constant and adequate socio-pedagogical intervention, together with a safe and constant care relationship with educators, can erase or attenuate.

Children welcomed can be:

INTERNALS

Those are the children who live constantly within the mission and are entrusted to the St. Michael (the only center in the area), from five jurisdictions of various courts operating within 120 km.

The relocation process is complex and involves the intervention of the Council for the Protection of Children and Adolescents of the Town Hall in collaboration with the Social Services Sector of the Court of Justice, who study together the different conditions of marginalization.

Once the need of entrusting a child has been confirmed, the St. Michael evaluate through their social workers the general situation of the child in order to reach a conscious and motivated decision on his or her entry into the community.

Two situations may occur during their stay:

the child stay in the community until the age of eighteen, with all the benefits that come from it
the Court decides to assign the child back to his/her family or begin an adoption procedure (the latter in case of very young children)

EXTERNALS

Outdoor children live their childhood in the poorest areas of the city with their own family, in very precarious and disadvantaged conditions, experiencing misery and violence.

However during the day, with the permission of their parents, they are welcomed by the St. Michael Opera who, according to their different ages, places them in the socio-educational programs organized by the Opera.

The transport service made available by the mission, specially equipped, collects them in the morning in their homes and bring them back home in the evening.

The permanence of these children in the mission is rather unstable and subject to sudden changes due, most often, to the parents moving to other locations in the country.

While it is definitive if the family does not make itself available anymore and there is no other relative who can take care of the child.

Regional internal children entrusted by the Court	120
External children coming from the outskirts of the city	300
Paid employees of the St. Michael Opera	55
Government employees	30
Meals provided every day	1500 circa
TOTAL Children who left the St. Michael Opera so far	400+