A colorful school environment should help children to enjoy their studies more and improve their school attendance. With that thought in mind Fabiano Aguiar and his sales team from Marine & Protective Coatings in São Gonçalo, Brazil made a proposal to renovate the ‘Jornalista Wladimir Herzog’ Public School near the AkzoNobel site with support from the Community Program.
The initiative, effecting 656 students and 40 teachers in a community that is considered at risk of drugs and violence, was approved and in the summer of 2008 about 25 employees arrived at the school early in the morning to start the first phase of the project. At the end of the day they could be proud of the change they had made to the common areas, like the canteen, hallways and restrooms). The enthusiasm of the volunteers about the result of their hard work was such that plans were made to continue with new projects at the school.
Some examples for the future plans are: creating a garden, recuperating the trail of athletics, reactivating the swimming pool, renovation of the library, constructing an extension to the data processing laboratory, a science laboratory, mount rooms for vocational courses and fence a playground for the Pre School.
The Jornalista Wladimir Herzog Public School now gladly opens its doors on Saturdays for our volunteering employees and hopefully the students will indeed have more pleasure staying at school and the new colors will offer them a brighter perspective.