São Paulo – Ten students from Santa Catarina, a state in the south of Brazil that was hit by heavy rains in November 2008, travelled yesterday (13th) to Saudi Arabia, where they should remain until next Tuesday (19th). The group travelled at the invitation of the royal family, and will have the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the Saudi culture and habits in the same week of the official visit of president Luiz Inácio Lula Silva to the country.
The children selected are aged from 12 to 15 and live in the cities of Blumenau, Gaspar, Ilhota and Luiz Alves, which were hit the hardest by the floods. In April, the Saudi king, Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, donated 11 million reals (US$ 5 million) to the victims of the rains in the Itajaí Valley. In order to locate the children, regional secretariats in Blumenau and Brusque were contacted.
According to information supplied by the Saudi embassy in Brazil, the Brazilian youths are going to follow an intense schedule of activities and visitation to the main spots in Riyadh, including historic landmarks such as Masmak Fort and modern locations such as the Kingdom Tower.
The students will also have an opportunity to meet Saudi youths and get in direct contact with the local culture and tradition by means of a guided tour of the National Museum of Riyadh. The schedule was prepared by the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information.
Ana’s royal dream
Ana Carolina Morello, aged 15, a sophomore in senior school, has been dreaming of seeing "the land of the Queen" and doing an exchange course in London for years, but she had never imagined travelling as part of a group at the invitation of a king. "Currently, a trip abroad was a very distant dream. When my father called me telling me that I would have a chance to visit Saudi Arabia, I was very surprised and thought he was joking," said the student, while carrying her bag along the aisles of Guarulhos International Airport, in São Paulo, a few hours before embarking on the Air France flight to Paris.
Her happy smile, full of expectation, shows a very different girl from six months ago, who shared with her parents and nine-year-old brother the drama of being isolated in the family house in the city of Gaspar. "It was horrible. We had no water and little food. Lessons were suspended because the schools needed to be used to house the homeless families," she said.
Another member of the group travelling to the Middle East is Alexandro de Lima, also aged 15 and in the 8th grade of a school in Blumenau. He is among the group of families that lost everything due to the flood. Alexandro, his parents and his three younger brothers only survived because they sought assistance at the house of a neighbour.
*Translated by Mark Ament and Gabriel Blum
