Arte Suave: how it's been going
An update from Nossa Senhora de Fátima, autumn 2026
Arte Suave ran for several years with real success in the community, and then stopped. It had depended entirely on council funding, and when that funding ended, so did the programme. This year it came back, thanks to the kind support of a trust here in the UK, which pays the teaching wages. This is how it has been going.
(Arte Suave is an after-school programme in Nossa Senhora de Fátima, the neighbourhood near Belo Horizonte where our partners at Projeto Bom Pastor work. It brings jiu-jitsu and homework support together in one programme, on the same afternoons. The two are tied together on purpose: a child who wants their next stripe has a reason to take their schoolwork seriously that makes sense to them. The name means "the gentle art", which is also what jiu-jitsu itself translates as.)
Who comes, and when
Forty children and young people, aged six to seventeen, come to Arte Suave four afternoons a week. Two sessions are jiu-jitsu, taught by Gabriela, a black belt. Two are homework support, run by Andréa. The two halves are tied together on purpose. A child who wants their next stripe has a reason to take their schoolwork seriously that makes sense to them.
Every place is taken, and about fifteen children are on the waiting list. Forty children also means close to forty families, and the programme is built around that. Parents are brought into the gradings, and the team works with the household, not only the child.
The teachers
Finding the right homework teacher took months. Qualified teachers who fit a project like this are scarce locally, and for a while the jiu-jitsu ran without the study half beside it, which is not how any of it is meant to work. When Andréa arrived, she was worth the wait. She is a qualified teacher, an educationalist and a psychoanalyst, and she works with the children's learning and their emotional lives at the same time. She has ended up supporting several of their families too.
What the schools are saying
Three schools have phoned the project to say they've noticed a change in the children they send us, both in their learning and in how they behave in class. Nobody asked them to. Formal school results aren't published until December, and we'll share what we learn.
We asked Karla, who coordinates the programmes, what success looks like. Children doing well at school, taking the jiu-jitsu seriously, and behaving well at home. Not dramatic turnarounds, just children who are all right, and who might not otherwise have been.
The team at Projeto Bom Pastor put it like this:
"The fruit continues to be wonderful. Each child's development is steady and significant."
The first grading of the year
The first grading of 2026 brought 86 people into the hall: children, parents and guests. Around thirty of the forty children were awarded a stripe, between their first and third. The few who weren't had joined only a couple of weeks before, and the team sat down with their families to explain that nobody is graded after a week. The belt system can't be rushed.
Before the stripes were handed out, Andréa ran a simple exercise with a piece of string, showing how easily work comes apart when one person does it alone, and how strong it becomes when the family and the project pull in the same direction. Lucas, who leads Projeto Bom Pastor, told the families the story of the organisation's 33 years in the neighbourhood. Then Gabriela's own master, Marcos Paulo, spoke about sport as a way of building character, and called each child up in front of their parents.
One mother told the team afterwards:
"From the moment we got my son into the project, I've seen a big change in him. He comes home from every session happy, excited and more confident. For a mother, that's priceless. Nothing could repay this team for the support, the care, the attention, the snacks, the effort and the love."
The next grading is planned for December, and Karla hopes all forty children will take part.
What's holding the waiting list back
It isn't space, staff or demand. It's kit. Among the fifteen waiting are children who have recently come into our Safe House. Every child has a uniform (a gi) and a bag, at about R$480, or £70, a set, funded through a local grant. The team won't put a new child on the mat in whatever they happen to own while everyone else is in a matching gi, and we think they're right: the uniform is part of why the children feel they belong. The team in Brazil is looking for local funding for more. We mention it so you know where things stand.
A stretched team
Our team in Brazil is stretched, too. Funds are limited, and staff regularly cover work outside the roles they were hired for. We mention that as well, because it's part of the honest picture.
What comes next
The same work carries on through the rest of the year, with the same teachers and the same children. This year's funding runs to December, and we'd like the programme to carry on into 2027. We'll keep you posted.
A grant for wages isn't the easiest thing to give. It keeps a teacher in the room and a coach on the mat, and everything above follows from it. Thank you to everyone who has made this possible.
If you'd like to be part of work like this, you can partner with us.
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