There probably isn't a boy under five in Rio de Janeiro's Serrinha favela who cannot beat out the complicated syncopated rhythms of the Brazilian samba. After all, Serrinha claims to be the birthplace of the samba--the music and dance of Rio's renowned carnival.
So it was not entirely odd that Arandi Cardoso dos Santos, who was born and raised in Serrinha, abandoned his plans for the priesthood to become a samba musician, and then founded a samba "school" for children.
Rio has 77 adult samba schools, which are troupes of up to 4,000 dancers, singers and musicians, most of them from the favelas, who practice all year long and spend heavily on elaborate costumes to compete against other samba schools during carnival week.
Cardoso dos Santos, who is affectionately known by his nickname "Careca" (baldy), although he's not bald, wanted to tap into the energy and cooperative spirit of the adult samba schools to help the children of the Serrinha favela. But he was unsuccessful. "They all turned me down."
So in 1983 he formed Rio's first children's samba school, the "Empire of the Future Samba School Recreational Cultural Club" with 250 kids from the Serrinha favela. Today, the school has 1,200 kids ages 7 to 17 from Serrinha and neighboring favelas. Thousands more participate in nine other children's samba schools that have since been founded. The children have their own parade day, Carnival Tuesday, and perform before judges. Three-fourths of the children join the adult schools when they turn 18.
Cardoso dos Santos' goal in founding the school was twofold: to teach children the African roots of the samba, and to use the classes as an incentive to keep favela children in regular school. He has a simple rule: to participate in carnival, a child has to stay in school and pass his grade. Last year, only 10 percent of the kids in the Empire of the Future school failed their grade, a low rate by Rio standards.
"The kids who fail in school are the saddest kids in the world," says Germinal Domínguez, coordinator of Rio's IDB-financed program for children at risk, "because the carnival parade is the biggest thing in their lives."
In 1996, the Empire of the Future samba school used $48,000 from an $8 million IDB grant to purchase tools and materials for a new carnival costume workshop in Serrinha. Some 52 children are learning the costume craft, and some of the best adult samba schools have commissioned the shop to make welded-wire headpieces for their costumes.
"There is never enough money" laments Cardoso dos Santos. "But when I see the children parading down the streets during carnival, the word ‘happy' is not enough to express how I feel."