On the outskirts of Recife, a town on Brazil's beautiful northern coast, children pick through the trash at the Olinda garbage dump in search of bottles and cans to be re-sold.
Sadly, despite national laws that forbid child labour, the income generated from this work often means the difference between starvation and survival for the child's family.
Yet, Ana Maria works each day with families to break the cycle of poverty through providing alternatives to child labour. Ana Maria runs education and child development initiatives for Fazer Valeros Direitos, a UNICEF programme. One such programme is Bolsa Escola, which offers renewable scholarships that allow children to go to school
while providing them with an income. Children are paid either in cash or in-kind and are allowed to take basic educational courses in the morning and go to enrichment activities, such as music and art, in the afternoon.
Ana Maria works closely with families to make the programme a success — visiting parents at home, monitoring living conditions, and assisting with scholarship paperwork. Her reward is seeing young people regain their childhoods and realize that life offers opportunities they never dreamed were possible.