Our Mission

Accademia's mission is to significantly raise the educational standards of public education in under-privileged communities and thereby support their economic and social development. In order to achieve this goal, Accademia channels support to multiple educational centers in each community. Our belief is that every child has a fundamental right to good education which will provide him or her with the opportunity to contribute positively to society and beyond.  Accademia's work to date has been concentrated on the community of Santa Isabel, a parish within the municipality of Viamao, Rio Grande do Sul, in the south of Brazil near the large city of Porto Alegre. 

 We focus on:

• Providing a secure physical environment for disadvantaged children before attending afternoon school or after attending morning school;
• Providing access to first world educational material and tools as well as accelerated learning programs for primary school children;
• Improving the standard of teaching by assistance in training;
• Developing a close working relationship with the Viamão municipality

How We Operate

Association Accademia is based in Monaco and run solely by a dedicated team of volunteers. There are no paid staff or office expenses, leading to very low administrative costs, a key factor which differentiates us from other charities. This minimal overhead includes website maintenance and other incidental expenses, with overheads in the region of 2% of our revenues. A massive 98% of contributions generated from our events are used to support our mission.

Under the supervision of Padre Valdir Formentini OSFS in Brazil, we receive reports to measure our progress and search for ways to best use our resources for new projects that can continue to create meaningful changes. Padre Valdir informs us of any opportunity that is aligned with our strategic goals and intended results. Once the project idea is sufficiently formed, we develop a proposal, with budgets, framework, and deadlines. Following site visits and approval from our board of directors, we schedule our fundraising gala events in Monaco with a defined goal of achieving specific results for a particular project.

Accademia provides project support by: funding the construction of new classroom and sport facilities, Introducing local partners to organise and manage complementary educational programming to new and existing education centers. And by funding supplementary classes for children at risk.

Who We Work With

We build collaborative partnerships with local organisations who share our vision to achieve our goals and create long term impact. By matching needs of the children of Santa Isabel to the goals of our diverse partners, we have benefited from their local influence, expertise and support over the years:

1. Assistencia Social Santa Isabel (ASSI), a social welfare organisation led by Padre Valdir
2. The Municipal Government of Viamão
3. The Parish of Santa Isabel
4. VIVO Telefonica Brasil
5. Dell Computadores do Brasil Ltda.
6. Fundação Bradesco