Formiga Juju has become a spontaneous movement that brings people together around a common goal: to promote reading and creative expression among children in vulnerable situations.
AIDGLOBAL has joined the Formiga Juju team in promoting inclusive education in Mozambique by offering its support to a new project, “A Formiga Juju e o Sapo Karibu”. The aim of this initiative is to create a functional model for promoting education, adapted to the local context, which combines reading materials and creative expression in favor of diversity and inclusion. "The target group is children in vulnerable situations who are on the periphery, geographically or socially. In particular, we want to reach children with special educational needs and the educators who deal with them on a daily basis,“ explains the team behind ”Formiga Juju", which includes journalist and writer Cristina Pereira, illustrator Walter Zand and graphic designer Mia Temporário. Formiga Juju was born in 2011 with the support of a group of people and institutions who believed in the project and made it a reality through the PPL Crowdfunding Portugal website. With a fund of 3,670 euros, they produced 500 copies of the book “A Formiga Juju na Cidade das Papaias”, for free distribution in Mozambique. Using an extensive network of partners, they reached the provinces of Maputo, Gaza, Sofala and Niassa, as well as getting an extension to Luanda, through a group of volunteers. In a landmark step, they also made it possible to reprint the book in a print run of 4,000 copies. “Formiga Juju has become a spontaneous movement that brings together people and wills around a common goal: to promote reading and creative expression among children in vulnerable situations so that they themselves can be the creators of their own stories,” explains the team. At the moment, “Formiga Juju” is launching a new crowdfunding project to raise 6,000 euros to publish and distribute 1,000 copies of the story of “Formiga Juju e o Sapo Karibu”, produce a puzzle, record a video with two versions, in Portuguese and Mozambican sign language, and set up a mobile library from a “tchova”, with the support of AIDGLOBAL.
“A Formiga Juju na Cidade das Papaias” is part of the bibliographic collection of the “Rede de Bibliotecas Escolares do Distrito do Chibuto”, a project promoted by AIDGLOBAL. The book is part of the promotion of the values of Development Education, namely through awareness of environmental preservation. Find out more about the project at http://ppl.com.pt/pt/prj/karibu or follow them on Facebook.
