Education
The education of children, youth and adults is a goal pursued since the beginning of the Fundação Terra, in order to allow the poor to overcome the chronic state of poverty in which they live. The Fundação Terra offers early childhood education (full-time day care and elementary school) based on psychomotricity principles, targeting the mental, motor, artistic and socio-affective behavior of the children. Therefore, in addition to formal education, the community has access to complementary activities, such as music, performing arts, dance, sports and martial arts.
Health Care The Fundação Terra develops projects and actions destined to prevent, rehabilitate and protect the human health. The Mens Sana Rehabilitation Center assists, free of charge, patients of thirty-five municipalities in the specialties of intellectual, physical, auditory and visual rehabilitation, producing excellent results that led the Mens Sana to be classified as a referral center for rehabilitation in the state of Pernambuco. In addition, the Mens Sana offers treatments to babies born with congenital brain abnormalities, including microcephaly due to Zika virus infection.
In 2018 the first Orthopedic Center was opened. It is a branch of the Mens Sana Rehabilitation Center, and is located in the country side of Pernambuco. The center specializes in orthoses (i.e., devices used to modify the structural and functional characteristics of the neuromuscular and skeletal system) and prostheses (i.e., external or implanted devices that substitutes for or supplements a missing or defective part of the human body).
Social The work focuses prioritized by the social sector of the Fundação Terra are: the social development, food security, protection of children, adolescents and elderly people with personal and social risks.
In the rural area of Arcoverde, Pernambuco, three houses offer shelter and support from Monday to Friday to children and adolescents. The children return to their family during weekends and holidays. For children and adolescents, the Social Sector of the Fundação Terra promotes, through art and culture, activities that strengthen their individual and collective self-affirmation, supporting the development of their expression and communication.
The elderly assisted by the Fundação Terra find support in the Home of the Elderly Domus Christi, located in Arcoverde, where they receive humanitarian welcome and the deserved protection, through qualified professionals and adequate facilities.
In the Boa Vista neighborhood of the Recife city, Pernambuco, the Fundação Terra has the C AMOR, a support center for street dwellers. The C AMOR was created with the purpose of bringing care, affection and hope to 150 youth and adults homeless people of Recife. At C AMOR, these people receive food, clothes, personal care items, evangelization and literacy. In Recife, the Fundação Terra also maintains, free of charge, a residence for poor graduate students from Arcoverde and Sertânia, cities located in the country side of the State of Pernambuco.
In 2005, Father Airton Freire felt the need to plant a seed of hope in the suburb of the metropolitan area of Fortaleza, Ceará, in the neighborhood Alto Alegre II in Maracanaú. Hence, in 2015 a unit of the Fundação Terra was inaugurated with the purpose of assisting the local community. Among the many projects developed in this unit, there is the day care center Pleno Viver, that supports 138 children full-time.
Contact Information
Rua Alfredo de Souza Padilha, s/nº | Bairro São Cristóvão
Arcoverde, Pernambuco, Brazil
Zip Code: 56512-460
Phone: +55 (87) 3821-1542
E-mail:
chames.balladares@fundacaoterra.org.br 
