Community Relations - Brazil

The following organisations are supported by British Airways and receive complimentary tickets, cargo and excess baggage.

Action for Street Children

British Airways Action for Street Children, is a volunteer programme for British Airways staff . The programme works with three UK based charities; Hope for Children, Task Brasil and The Railway Children. Teams of British Airways staff volunteers use their annual leave time to visit these projects in Sofia, Lusaka and Rio de Janeiro. As well as spending time with the children and encouraging the carers, the team brings educational and sports equipment with them. Several tons of donated goods are also sent free of charge to the projects through the generosity of British Airways World Cargo.

Find out more about Action for Street Children

Rainforest Concern

Rainforest Concern, established in 1993, focuses on protecting threatened rainforests and the vast biodiversity they contain, together with the indigenous people who still depend on them for their survival. The charity now has fourteen projects Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Panama and Sri Lanka. British Airways has provided assistance to the charity for over ten years.

Visit www.rainforestconcern.org

Task Brasil

Task Brasil was founded in the UK in 1992 to help relieve the plight of the street children of Brasil. These children lead precarious lives on the margins of Brazilian society, poorly fed, ill-educated and vulnerable to violent abuse, and the temptations of crime and drug use. In 1997 Task Brasil was able to purchase and open its first children’s home, Casa Jimmy. Casa Jimmy provides a home to very young children and also accommodates teenage mothers and their children. In the nine years since Casa Jimmy opened, more than 370 children have been cared for there. Task Brasil has opened a further three homes for disadvantaged children in Rio and its surrounding area, including Epsom College Farm, an organic farm in Rio State, where teenage boys can learn sustainable farming techniques. Task Brasil also runs “The Street Approach”, an outreach programme aimed at rescuing children and adolescents living on the streets of Rio. The aim of all of Task Brasil's residential projects is to provide the children with a secure and loving home, to ensure that they receive the education and healthcare to which they are entitled, to provide them with vocational training so that they can support themselves in later life and, where possible, to reunite them with their families.

Visit www.taskbrasil.org.uk