Stories

Silvia Ferrite, Juntos Programme Coordinator

“Hundreds of “hands” created the Juntos Programme: project creators and leaders, specialist consultants, coordinators, researchers, facilitators and, above all, dozens of carers and their children. The intervention did not arrive ready-made, to be applied, tested and imposed on the families.  And they quickly understood their fundamental role in this construction.  It was so good, for example, to see them point out what “was good” and what – and how – it “could be better” and how they felt increasingly free to express themselves.  It was so good to see the university and the community working together: in a feasible, profoundly gratifying, partnership that has the potential to foster the empowerment of the families themselves.  It was so good to coordinate a team that welcomed differences and recognized talents, and therefore created affective bonds and unity.  We are “Together” (Juntos), in a participatory programme, centred on the family, which everyone believes in.”

Silvia Ferrite, Juntos Programme Coordinator in Bahia (Salvador, Brazil)