August 2023 - A group of Mona supporters travelled to Brazil in June, joining Mona CEO Mahnaz Javid and COO Laura Baerwolf in visiting our partner ADCAM in Manaus, Amazonas. In its mission to promote the material and social well-being of the Amazonian people, ADCAM operates School of the Future, a K-12 school with incredible family and community engagement, and a Youth Apprentice program connecting students to work opportunities with local businesses. In our experience, ADCAM's ability to engage the whole community is truly unprecedented and another great example of "Together, a Surging Sea." 

ADCAM's primary aim is to promote the social and material well-being of the members of its community, motivated by a spirit of service to humanity. Beyond its School for the Future and Youth Apprentice program, ADCAM offers a variety of programs for community members. 

One such program is the “Feminine Diginity” project, a health initiative that aims to guarantee menstrual dignity for low-income girls, ages 11 to 17, who study at the public schools in the area around ADCAM.   

In 2022, the Feminine Dignity project distributed free sanitary napkins and provided lectures on women's health to 2,268 girls at four schools in the state and municipal education network. 

ADCAM has worked to promote the wellbeing of its students and families throughout the pandemic.  In addition to transitionig to remote learning during the lockdown period, the school helped mediate conflicts, promote the strengthening of family ties, and offer socio-emotional support to everyone involved. Those who faced many difficulties were guided to seek professional help.

When in-person classes resumed in schools across Brazil in February 2022, ADCAM transitioned to a hybrid teaching model with 100% participation by its students.  

Face-to-face classes held at the school campus obeyed all COVID-19 prevention protocols and were of great benefit to engaging students in the teaching-learning process and promoting interdisciplinary projects. To fill in pandemic-related learning gaps, teachers developed various pedagogical interventions to support students in the classroom.  

To create a virtual learning environment and transmit in-person classes, ADCAM used educational digital applications and platforms, such as Alunosbook Educational Platform,the Iscool App (Electronic Agenda),  Google Meet and Google classroom. 

It all started when Ferial and her family moved to Manaus in the heart of the Amazon in 1985. Ferial, pictured to the right, saw the abject poverty around her and decided to do something about it. Her first step was to pick up 5 abandoned toddlers off the street and bring them home with her and this is how the orphanage started. By the time she was done, 300 abandoned children had been adopted into good families. She then decided that education was the only way to address the root cause of poverty and started an elementary school. She added a classroom every year until the school offered a full K-12 curriculum.

Ferial then looked around and saw hundreds of street children, often with no clothes and hungry, begging in the streets.  She decided to do something about that and started ADCAM’s Family Development Center.  This program offers free education to the street children, while providing support and training to the parents.