Blessings for Brazil: Trip to Rio Was Inspiration for Non-Profit

After taking a flight to Rio de Janeiro to volunteer in a flood-ravaged area, Lauri Francis found herself in a run-down school library, helping the librarian tape up old books that were falling apart.

"Harry Potter was nowhere to be found," Francis said. "Books are a rarity [in Brazil]. For the price of one book here, you can buy two to three books back home."

It was a humble beginning for the charity Francis founded, Blessings for Brazil. Inspired by her experiences as a volunteer at the Solar School in Rio, Francis started small -- she began collecting donations from friends, family and acquaintances to buy new books for the children at Solar.

Less than two years later, Blessings for Brazil is an international effort, with volunteers in Brazil and across the U.S. helping to improve life for kids in Rio. The non-profit delivers books and school supplies, provides grants to teachers and supports special projects in the schools it sponsors.

Interviewed at Cafe Brazil, where she distributes materials about her organization to Port Chester's Brazilian community, Francis is poised, yet glowing with life-giving energy. But that's not surprising considering her lengthy resume of good, soul-rewarding deeds that include teaching English in Shanghai as a volunteer educator for World Teach, a non-profit focused on developing countries.

"My mother worked for a division of the United Nations responsible for funding UNICEF,"  Francis said, as if volunteerism is in the genes.

Today, Blessings for Brazil is a 501-c3 non-profit organization. It gets no funding from the federal government, relying on small charitable contributions from people all over the world. Support from donors has allowed the organization to provide clothing, books and musical instruments to young children in an orphanage in Recife. Blessings for Brazil is also leading an initiative in Rochina, known as the largest favela in Rio, where the group was invited to help start a new library in conjunction with the non-profit Hope's Chest.

Francis credits a squad of volunteers that connected with each other through the Internet.

"Our team," she said, "is what allows us to be successful."

Many of the volunteers on the Blessings for Brazil team Francis met on craigslist.org, couchsurfing.org, and idealist.org, all online communities where like-minded people get together to share ideas in one form or another. All three sites are also non-profits.

One of the U.S.-based volunteers, Kenneth Paterson, is dean of I.S. 220, a Middle-school in Brooklyn. Paterson helps the charity raise money.

"We raise capital by asking for donations, from businesses and individuals," he said, "but it can be tough since there's a lot of non-profits out there doing the same thing."

Luckily, differentiating themselves from other non-profits and demonstrating value isn't so daunting with the right programs. Their new teacher-enrichment program provides funds for teachers to buy school supplies, and their student-enrichment program allows students in Brazil to pen-pal with students in other parts of the world via the internet.

"Our dollars can take them a lot further there," Paterson said.

One can't help but be impressed with the growth of Blessings for Brazil considering they've only technically been in existence for a year and a half. It's conceivable that such an organization can continue to grow by leaps and bounds by adding a full-time staff and paying for office space, but Francis wants to keep the overhead as low as possible so the amount benefiting students and young people in Brazil is at as close to 100 percent as possible.

"Rome wasn't built in a day," said Francis. "Besides, with the recession, some of that generous spirit is on hold."

Immediate goals for this year include raising $4,000 and increasing outreach efforts by going to open markets, community events, working with other non-profits and holding an annual picnic and drummer's circle.

So far, the group's members have been regulars at the Green Flea in New York City–outside of the Museum of Natural History–getting the word out and recruiting volunteers wherever they can. And now, they're spreading the word in Port Chester as well as other parts of Westchester, where they hope to reach as many ears as possible.

As for Francis, she'll continue teaching and pursuing her Ed.D in distributive learning at Fielding Graduate University until the day when she can devote all her attention toward Blessings for Brazil–or find a new way to put her talents to use.

Robert Rennie is an aspiring couch-surfer and wannabe social entrepreneur. Robert holds two masters in education, and is no stranger to craigslist or any of the other social networks that enrich our lives every day.