São Paulo – Brazilian communities abroad received donations of textbooks this year, and will still receive more, by the National Fund for Education Development (FNDE), a body from the Ministry of Education. The Arab countries Lebanon, Morocco and Jordan are among the countries of destinations for the books.
The books are intended for the high school level, according to deputy coordinator of the Fund’s Support for Education Networks, Camila de Oliveira Santos. Communities interested in receiving books for the elementary school levels can register to receive them in 2016, if there’s availability.
The initiative is carried out together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty). According to information from the ministry’s press office, the donations are done in a partnership with FNDE since 2011 and, from this shipment of 2015, 200 copies were shipped already. “Such publications have the purpose of meeting the demands of Brazilian communities abroad, with the goal to keep alive the interest of Brazilians, youth and adults, living abroad, in reading and studying Brazilian works”, the Itamaraty declared to ANBA.
The books that are sent to Brazilian communities abroad are those that were not used by the Brazilian public school system. The Ministry of Education, through the National Textbook Program, sends textbooks from the Elementary school levels to local and state schools that join the project.
Because the textbooks are ordered six months before, when the FNDE buys them it has only an estimate for the numbers of students, based on the census of the previous year, and that’s why it needs to have a technical reserve. When it’s not used completely, the books can be donated. Textbooks are bought every three years to be used in the next three years. When the end of this time period is reached and the textbooks were not required, they can be donated to Brazilian communities abroad or other initiatives, provided they go to the students and are properly disposed after the use.
Camila says that Brazilian communities abroad that are interested in receiving textbooks from the 1st to the 5th years-levels of elementary school can register at the FNDE website, since the three-year period of the books being used ends in 2015. Thus, if there’s anything in the technical reserve, they could receive them.
In the current international donation, 327,281 books will be shipped. In Beirut, capital of Lebanon, the books will be available for the use of the Brazilian community at the Brazil-Lebanon Cultural Center, according to information released by Brazil’s embassy in Lebanon in its Facebook profile. In total, more than 50 countries will receive the books, among them Japan, Bolivia, Ireland, Peru, Belgium, Slovenia, Thailand, Norway, Croatia, Argentina, Switzerland, England, Cape Verde and Cyprus.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
