Sao Paulo

At the British College of Brazil (BCB), students, parents, staff and Events and Fundraising Group (EFG) provide support for children from two charity organisations; Arca do Saber, the official charity of the Primary school students, and Casa da Criança, the official charity of the Secondary school students, as chosen by them. 

Arca do Saber is a pedagogical centre that provides educational and social activities for children aged between 6 and 14,  in the community of Vila Prudente, located on the east side of São Paulo. In 2017, the EFG was motivated to support the construction of a new project called “Arca do Crescer”, which is an extension of Arca do Saber, for teenagers between 14 and 17 years of age in the same community. The new building will be ready in October 2018 and aims to provide professional courses in ICT, Hospitality, Bakery, English, etc.

Casa da Criança, located in Santo Amaro; only 5 minutes from Chacara Flora campus, is also a pedagogical centre that provides educational and social activities for children aged between 6 and 15, that study in nearby municipal schools. This charity serves children from the region who were sent by the tutelary council and who live in orphanages.

The EFG works together with the Student Council in order to raise money through various events and activities such as:

  • Bake and Sale day - all money raised is donated
  • Non-Uniform Day - at least four times per year students are invited to come to school dressed up following a specific theme (pyjamas, crazy hair day, super heroes, etc.) To participate, they donate R$5,00 or, depending on the event, it may be a donation of food or clothes
  • Gala Ball - entrance tickets, raffle prizes (donated by sponsor companies and parents) and auction of pieces of art (made by students) are all used to help raise money to donate to charities
  • Fayres - including the Christmas Fayre and Festa Junina 
  • Food Drive Donation - when an institution alerts the school that it is urgently in need of food, they organise a week of food donations and invite all families to participate
  • Clothes Drive Donation - on the first Semester of 2017, the community of Vila Prudente, where Arca do Saber is located, caught fire. The school did a clothes drive which were donated to the families who lost their belongings
  • Christmas Presents Arca do Saber - families volunteer to buy a present for one of the children from the institution. Normally, this present comes with a card made and written by the pupils. These presents are taken to Arca do Saber by Santa Claus, also a school volunteer. Parents are invited to attend and transportation is offered by the EFG
  • School Choir - Secondary pupils go to Casa do Saber at the end of the year to perform in the Christmas Choir. Last year, the school also had English teachers volunteering to help their children to join the choir, who then performed at BCB for the Primary pupils
  • English classes - BCB has a group of volunteer parents who teach English to the children at Arca do Saber and Casa da Criança on a weekly basis
  • Sports Day - at least once a year, a group of students from these institutions come to BCB to play and participate in sports competitions with the pupils
  • Pen Friends - a new project was created with the Portuguese department between our Year 3 pupils and Arca do Saber children, where they exchange letters to get to know each other


At the end of each academic year, the EFG provides the charities with a budget in order to keep their projects running. This budget is previously discussed and approved by the EFG and the Student Council.

They have already made many important improvements in the last few years including;

  • the refurbishment of the electric system
  • ​the refurbishment of the classrooms and new school material
  • new kitchen equipment including a professional oven
  • payment of courses for staff members, school uniforms and sports clothes (capoeira etc)
  • the refurbishment of the library and playground
  • school material for classes given by our volunteer teachers (English, Arts, French and PE)


For more information about the school's volunteer work please contact efg@britishcollegebrazil.org.