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FINANCING
- * Dues from members
- * Private donations
- * Project financing by Brazilian public entities
- * Project financing by International public entities and foundations
- * 100 paintings donated by Ele D’Artagnan for sale at the KS ART Gallery in New York
- * Contributions by business, public and private, Brazilian and foreign
- * Contributions by banks
- * Entrance fees for students
- * Fees for library services
- * Payments for accommodation and tour guides
- * Tuitions from paying students
- * Rents for spaces conceded for events, exhibitions, concerts, theatrical rehearsals, parties, religious encounters, conferences, etc.
- * Sales of arts and crafts and ICBIE gadgets (t-shirts, ashtrays, key chains, calendars, CDs, DVDs, postcards, pottery, etc.) with a weekly public market
- * Receipts from the commercial activities of the Internet Café
- * Rent for ICBIE offices and infrastructure, for projects financed by other associations.
CLARIFICATIONS
The ICBIE, in order to function fully and with completed working spaces, continuously needs material goods and funds; even if the actual level of activity stands at 10% of its capacity (and if funds are not forthcoming, it will continue to function at this minimal level), it is self-sustaining, thanks to the voluntary work of its associates, dues, private donations, renting rooms to tourists, from eventual assistance from state, national, or international bodies, and sponsorships from large and small businesses. The work involved in assembling the operative structure of the ICBIE Europa began in 2002 with the gathering and sale of personal goods of the founder and creator, the Italian, Pietro Gallina, and his Brazilian wife, Marlene de Souza, with the sale in New York of paintings inherited from a friend, the deceased painter and actor, Ele D’Artagnan, and with the help of a few friends, including the musician Roy Zimmerman. In 2003 the city of Salvador was chosen, and, in particular, its poor peripheral area, near to the impossible living conditions of the Alagados favela, built on piles in the bay, without running water or sewers, a nest for the most humiliating violence and where life is valueless, with children who are victims of rape, beatings and abuse, often by their own family, plagued by alcoholism, drug abuse, crime and despondency, living in filthy streets without hope for the future and who, even desiring to attend public schools, cannot meet the expenses for clothes, shoes, notebooks, bus transportation, hygiene and lunches. Instead, children are sent to beg, to steal and to deal drugs, in order to earn something, rather than to be an expense by attending school. This is why the choice fell to the Ribeira bairro for the school’s location. Having a support point in the vicinity of the worst areas of the city, where music, the arts, computers, crafts, languages and theater can be taught is a way to keep these children out of the streets. This means a constant social activity on the spot, sending volunteers that can develop projects that are appropriate for the diverse needs of the populace, in collaboration with the city, with other non-governmental organizations, with foundations and international bodies that are already working to some extent in the outskirts of Salvador. Our breed of social tourism can dedicate a few days to the typical tropical joys and pleasures, but in so doing, can offer various kinds of solidarity. A priority of the ICBIE is also the continuous presence of foreigners, who, with their particular attitudes, dress and speech, can graft into the minds of the children of this area a testimonial of unknown ways of life and solidarity, capable of defeating the crushing and apparently insuperable fatality of their existence.
At this time, the on-site staff of the ICBIE consists of ten founding members, with roughly twenty volunteer associates (youths between 15 and 25 years of age) that are preparing, as workers, the field work; there are boys and girls of various levels of social extraction who learn computer science, a foreign language (Italian or English), general European culture, and library science, with the ordering and cataloging of our resources. Clearly, self-sustaining work means keeping the Institute alive, which is possible only on the condition that there is participation and assistance on all levels, but also from the sales of services and products of the ICBIE. The numerous guests that have visited our Institute have immediately understood, each in his or her own way, how they can help us, sending materials, making donations, and adopting students from afar.
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