Distinguished Women

Alice Stein

Most families living in the Amazon River area of Brazil subsist at the poverty level. Many have incomes equivalent to $100 a month or less. Although public schooling is provided for their children, and education is encouraged, most of the schools have only the most rudimentary facilities.

Alice Stein, a retired Buffalo teacher, has been making annual visits to the Amazon rainforest area near Santarem, Brazil, for about 10 years. Recently, she has been organizing small projects designed to improve educational opportunities there. Last year, she gathered sufficient donations from Western New York sources to finance the building of the one room school in the village of Poco Branch, shown here...

This year she is hoping to achieve the following goals:

Pastoral do Manor Trabalhador This school/social agency is aimed at helping impoverished young people of the area to gain the education and citizenship skills they need to become productive adults in the community. Many of these youngsters are vendors who sell small items like ice cream and shoe shines on the street. Currently, about 900 students attend, and other outreach services are provided to their families. The school is sponsored by the (Franciscan) Diocese of Santarem serves the entire community.

What you can do: Send the school boxes of good, clean used clothing for boys and girls from very small up to small adult, specifically: sneakers or other closed-toed casual shoes up to adult size 8; shorts, long pants, shirt-sleeved sport shirts, and girls knit tops. Avoid any clothing with writing or culturally oriented illustrations.

Rather than giving the clothing to the children outright, the school holds small fairs periodically where they make their own choices and pay bits them with bits of their own money. They are taught how to care for their clothes, and are expected to do so and to take pride in their appearance.

This is a highly doable project for clubs, Scouts, schools and families. Many families regularly discard such items, and great bargains also can be found at rummage and garage sales. its an effective way to encourage kids to help their peers in other lands..... and the need is truly desperate.

High school science laboratory: The high school that receives graduates of the elementary school in Paco Branco and others nearby is trying to equip a science lab oriented toward health education. Among the things that the teacher especially desires are: a human body model (torso), a human skeleton, one or more microscopes in good working order, laboratory glassware, and a laboratory scale.

What you can do: If you have any good, used equipment of this kind, any suggestions, or would like to donate money for purchasing and/or shipping, please contact Alice Stein as above.

Other projects are being developed and will be listed in this space when their parameters become more clear. In the meantime, any help you can give with these will be appreciated greatly by the young people they benefit.

To obtain specific directions for packing, addressing and mailing packages, along with a copy of a letter to enclose to get the package through customs, please call Alice Stein at 838-M5 or contact her by email at eaoa@localnet.com.

AMAZON ADVENTURES: RAINFOREST PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS

The world's tropical rainforests affect all of us every day of our lives. Their plant life cleans the air we breathe and provide us with essential medicines and foods. They contain thousands of species of insects, spiders, birds, reptiles, mammals and other forms of life that can be found nowhere else. We have only begun to explore the enormous resources the rainforests have to benefit man, yet we are destroying them at a rate unknown in previous human history. Every time an area of tropical rainforest falls, we lose a priceless part of our natural heritage.

Alice Stein, a retired Buffalo public school teacher, has been doing environmental photography in the Amazon rainforest annually for about a decade. She presents educational, illustrated programs to school, youth and adult groups throughout the Buffalo area in the interest of increasing public awareness of the value of our rain forests and of enhancing school curriculum units on this subject. For example, a new program, Family Life in the Rainforest, describes how the rainforests affect the everyday lives of the people who live there. A summary of the programs follows, along with details of booking. Generally, programs are for the very young in about 30 minutes and those for older kids and adults about 45 minutes. Where possible, questions and discussion are encouraged at the end.

Ages 3-6: Children this age love insects and other crawly critters, and these programs cater to that interest. Boo Bugs and Flowers with Wings shows colorful insects including butterflies and tells a bit about what an insect is and how caterpillars become butterflies and moths. Critters of the Rainforest shows crawly things like insects, spiders, snakes, and even the huge tailless whip scorpion.

Elementary school ages and up: Amazon Adventure takes the audience on a hike in the Amazon forest. Along the way, we discuss what a rainforest is and how the plants and creatures that live there adapt to the extreme wet and dry seasons.

We talk about how tropical rainforests affect the whole world population and how all of humanity will suffer if they are destroyed. The discussion is adapted to the ages and interests of the group. Family Life in the Rainforest also Is targeted to these ages.

Adults. Cruel Paradise: The Amazon Experience takes Amazon Adventure a step further and give more scientific facts. If a group has a special interest, such as birds, that it wishes to emphasize, this is done.

Alice does these programs as a volunteer. There is no set fee, but groups are encouraged to offer whatever honoraria they usually pay to speakers. All of the money goes toward educational projects, as described elsewhere in this web site.

For further information or to book programs, call her at (716) 838-6265 or email her at eaoa@localnet.com.

Return to the page I was just on.