A COPAME - Associação
Comunitária Pró-Amparo
do Menor (Help association for underage
children) is a non-profit NGO founded
on October 30, 1984.
COPAME was born
from the necessity of providing a shelter
for children suffering from abuse or
abandonment. A group of people from
the Santa Cruz do Sul community planned
and implemented this project with the
local Department of Child Welfare.
The home began to
function but over time the situation
became precarious , making it necessary
to appeal to the community through a
media blitz. In 1989 a support group
within the community, including foreigners
working for the local multinational
companies mobilized to contact companies
at home and abroad in a fund-raising
campaing. The campaing made it possible
to balance the budget, provide the ongoing
support necessary to continue the work
of the temporary shelter and most of
all, to build homes with the necessary
infrastructure for the children in a
situation of social vulnerability.
in 1990 the municipal
government donated the land, and with
the donators gathered by the Support
Group, 5 homes were built.
